RSL LifeCare’s War Museum offers visitors an immersive experience
The RSL LifeCare ANZAC Village War Museum in Narrabeen is celebrating a decade of preserving and sharing Australia’s rich military history with the community since it opened in April 2015. To mark the occasion, a special morning tea will be held at the museum on 15 October.
The museum has grown since it was established in 1986, so its current home near the Gallipoli Building is its third location.
Developed in conjunction with experts at the Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials and Conservation at the University of Melbourne, it has some rare items including a parachute motorbike.
What’s a parachute motorbike? A museum spokesperson says there was a secret facility in London that made anything needed during World War II.
“(The motorbike) was designed to be dropped from a parachute,” the spokesperson explains. “It was in a container (and) it dropped with a secret agent or a spy behind enemy lines. Then it quickly opened, the handlebars came up, the seat came up, they primed it, they started it and off they went, so it’s like a little mini motorbike.”
Personal artifacts on display date back to the Boer War and World War I. Many rare and unique items have been donated by ex-serving and past residents, making it a place where memories and personal stories live on. The spokesperson says that visitors are ‘gobsmacked and blown away by the experience.’
The museum runs tours and welcomes many high school and primary student groups.
There’s a self-guided tour sheet and a treasure hunt for children, and visitors can expect an immersive and interactive experience.
You can try on a uniform or a backpack, feel the weight and imagine the experience of those who wore it before.
“We’ve got 16 uniforms, navy, air force, army, for people to put on. We’ve also got about 10 hats that people can put on,” the spokesperson says. “We’ve done a biography of people who wore some of the uniforms. A few of them go back to World War II and we’ve got photos of the person wearing that particular uniform.”
The museum is managed by volunteers in close coordination with village management who will unite to celebrate the anniversary.
The museum has free entry and is open Monday to Sunday from 10am to 4pm – except for Christmas Day. There is parking and the Dugout café onsite. Service and guide dogs are welcome, and the museum is wheelchair accessible and has accessible toilets.
Phone 8978 4216 or email rlodesk@rsllifecare.org.au