30/08/2026
🎖️ YEPPOON RSL MILITARY MUSEUM 🎖️
Preserving our military history and the stories behind it
Behind the Yeppoon RSL Sub-Branch is a remarkable collection preserving generations of Australian military history and the stories of local servicemen and women.
🗓️ The Collection Begins — 1947
The origins of the Yeppoon RSL Military Museum collection can be traced back to at least 1947, when Miss Barry donated her uncle's Crimean War medals and sword.
Over the following decades, the collection continued to grow as local veterans, families and members of the community entrusted important pieces of military history to the RSL.
🏛️ The Museum Opens — 1978
The museum opened to the public in 1978, with Bob Barton serving as its inaugural curator.
His contribution to preserving the collection was later recognised through the name Bob Barton Memorial Museum.
Since 2007, the museum collection has been housed in a dedicated building behind the RSL.
🪖 More Than 5,500 Items
Today, this remarkable collection contains more than 5,500 items.
Among them are:
🎖️ Military medals
🪖 Uniforms and equipment
📸 Historical photographs
📜 Documents and records
✉️ Personal correspondence and mementos
🇦🇺 Material relating to the 42nd Battalion (Capricorn Regiment)
❤️ Every Item Has a Story
The museum is about much more than the objects on display.
Behind every medal, photograph, diary, uniform and personal possession is the story of a person and their service.
📖 One particularly significant item is the wartime log of Ron Jarvis, who was a prisoner of war from 1942 to 1945.
His remarkable record contains accounts of daily life as a POW along with sketches, poems and information about fellow prisoners.
✈️ The collection also includes the Distinguished Flying Cross of Squadron Leader Eric Jarman, together with the log book recording the final flight of his Lancaster bomber over Germany.
🔎 Help Us Preserve Their Stories
Through this page, we hope to gradually share the museum's collection, its history and, most importantly, the stories of the people represented within it.
📸 If you have old photographs, information or memories relating to the Yeppoon RSL Military Museum, its former curators and volunteers or items within its collection, we would be very pleased to hear from you.
🤝 Every photograph identified and every story remembered helps preserve another piece of our local history.
🇦🇺 Preserving their stories for future generations.
🌺 Lest We Forget.
Yeppoon RSL Sub Branch
RSL Queensland
RSL Central QLD District Branch Inc
RSL North Queensland District Inc
