Gold Coast Light Horse Education Museum

16/04/2026

LAST DAY TODAY FOR OUR FUNDRAISING SALES AT BURLEIGH: The Museum has a stand selling fundraising items at Stockland West Burleigh shopping centre. Stop by for an Anzac Day badge or commemorative item if you are in the area 🙂We are outside the ANZ bank at the Woolworths end of the centre. All proceeds go to museum conservation and to our school education programmes.

11/04/2026

The Gold Coast Light Horse Education Museum is proud to wish Dakota-Lily Bon voyage and the very best of luck!

Pictured here at Parliament House today with the QLD Premier and QLD Minister for Education.

A student from Upper Coomera State College, Dakota-Lily has taken out the 2026 Premier’s ANZAC Prize — an incredible achievement!

She filmed part of her award-winning 5-minute presentation right here at the museum, sharing why ANZAC Day matters to young Australians today. The Museum team was delighted to help her with her presentation and research.

Next stop: the Western Front, alongside seven other inspiring young Queenslanders. These students travel to Europe to represent QLD at various important Anzac commemorations including Anzac Day in France.

Congratulations, Dakota-Lily — we couldn’t be prouder! 👏

We need more young Aussies like you!

11/04/2026

The Museum has a stand selling fundraising items at Stockland West Burleigh shopping centre until Friday the 17th of April. Stop by for an Anzac Day badge or commemorative item if you are in the area 🙂We are outside the ANZ bank at the Woolworths end of the centre. All proceeds go to museum conservation and to our school education programmes.

01/04/2026

In the last two weeks we’ve enjoyed having a number of large school groups pass through our 'Patriotic Education' programme that covers military and Australian history (national curriculum approved).

The genuine engagement and curiosity of these young Australians is a big part of what motivates our amazing team of volunteers to contribute the time and expertise that they have to the Museum and our educational programmes.

We are always looking for more volunteers to help out, no military experience needed, just a love of history and the willingness to learn (and a blue card) 😊

We are proud to be keeping our history alive and to be inculcating a sense of national pride into the next generations.

29/03/2026

UPDATE ON HARRY THE POSSUM: Our resident Brushtail Possum 'Harry' had a group of visiting school kids captivated with his antics in the Schmidt Farmhouse last week.

As cute as he is, he's a messy little chap, and so his ingress down the old chimney into the farmhouse has been temporarily blocked until we can get a permanent plate atop the chimney. He's adorable, it's just not good for him, or for us, to be roaming around the farmhouse unsupervised. Plenty of better spots around the grounds.

If there are any local tradies who'd like to volunteer to get up and do that quick little rooftop fix safely for us - it will be greatly appreciated :)

Museum

29/03/2026

NEW TEMPORARY DISPLAY: In the room that will soon become the 'Jack McDowell' room (featuring exciting new displays and artefacts) we have on show the medals and some personal artefacts of LT Ray Matheson of the WW1 1st Light Horse. He served in the Light Horse in WW1 and again with the Army in WW2.

22/03/2026

Meet little ‘Harry’ (our nickname for the resident Brushtail Possum, named after the famous ‘Harry Chauvel’). He keeps coming down the chimney of the Schmidt farmhouse, and we are working on getting the top of the chimney blocked with a simple panel.

If there are any volunteer roofer / tradie types to help us do that safely - it will be very welcome and greatly appreciated. 😊 In the meantime, we get the occasional pleasant surprise as Harry comes and goes from the farmhouse.

These possums are a wonderful, and protected, native species that are common around our Mudgeeraba area. Beautiful little characters, we just need to work on keeping him out of the farmhouse kitchen, because as cute as he is - he makes a mess!

01/03/2026

Meet some of our young volunteers.

The Museum has many volunteers, including some wonderful young volunteers who come in every Sunday to help with the grounds, artefact conservation and special projects.

These three young people are local high school students volunteering as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. This is a great programme for developing leadership, resilience and community service skills.

If you'd like to be a volunteer, whatever your age or experience, message us here or drop in to see us one Sunday morning :)

28/02/2026

Looking for something to do this morning? Come on down and have a look at the Light Horse Museum at the Mudgeeraba Showgrounds. Free Entry and plenty to see :) Open till 1 pm.

28/02/2026

For many years, our Patriotic Education programmes for schools have sought to do exactly this: foster a thoughtful and grounded sense of pride in Australia among the next generation. A nation’s prosperity and social cohesion are strengthened when its people share a healthy appreciation of their collective story, values and achievements. Without that shared sense of connection, unity can easily fragment.

It is encouraging to see renewed interest in these conversations. One can only hope this trend continues, and that young Australians increasingly rediscover the many things we can genuinely celebrate and take pride in as a country like our history, our resilience, our freedoms and our spirit of community.

🇦🇺 Australian students will be taught why their country is the “best in the world” under new curriculum reforms intended to boost patriotism and combat hate. Find out more 👉 https://bit.ly/4rEiHde

16/02/2026

The Light Horse Museum is often used as a great rendezvous location for local clubs and social groups keen to see the displays and to use the picturesque grounds for a catch-up. Pictured here are the MG Car Club who dropped in with their own pieces of history on wheels last week.