History
Lilydale RSL HISTORY
Staff Sergeant Ralph Goode, the first man from Lilydale to have enlisted and to have returned from the war, hosted a meeting of nine local ex-servicemen in his home at 37 Maroondah Hwy, Lilydale to decide upon the establishment of a sub-branch of the Returned Sailors’ and Soldiers’ Imperial League of Australia (RSSILA).
A meeting was held on January 15th in the Reading Room (now the Melba Room) of the Athenaeum Building to officially form the Sub-branch.
First President was John Moroney (an Anglo-Boer War veteran) and the first Life Member was his sister, Nurse Dorothy Moroney. She was followed soon after by the Yarra Valley’s only Victoria Cross recipient, Lt George Ingram VC, MM, who was made the club’s second Life Member.
The sub-branch’s first activities were to help welcome home the local soldiers returning from the war and to host a procession of ex-service people down Lilydale’s Main Street to mark the proclamation of peace that officially ended the war.
The sub-branch entered the 1920s still in the shadow of the Great War.
Most of its activities were centred around employment for returned men, the issuing of service medals, lobbying for pensions, pushing for entitlements for ex-service people, widows and orphans and hosting carloads of convalescent soldiers on visits.
They continued to meet in the Athenaeum Hall until the Melba Park Hall was built in 1927 and they then moved in there. Annual Anzac Day and Armistice Day ceremonies were commenced and each Christmas they hosted a special event and lunch for the children of ex-service people.
During the Great Depression they lobbied for preference for ex-soldiers in jobs, donated a large amount of funds to the Council to start work on the Lilydale Bush Nursing Hospital so that it would provide work for veterans and helped numerous ex-Diggers who were itinerant or swagmen and passing through the town.
They lobbied for benefits for soldier settlers who had taken up farming blocks around the district and elected one of them, William Scurry MC, DCM, famous for inventing the time release gun that helped in the evacuation of Gallipoli, as the club’s president.
The annual Children’s Christmas treat continued although the club’s efforts and funds were stretched dealing with increasing welfare needs.
Scarcely one generation after the men of the Lilydale RSSILA fought in ‘the war to end all wars’, the nation was once more plunged into another world war and this time it would be their sons and daughters who would serve although a number of members would also go back into uniform.
Most notable was their involvement in the local unit of the Volunteer Defence Corps (Dad’s Army) for home defence.
Although members had pressures from other war effort demands, they were still involved in farewell and welcome functions for local service people, fund raising for war time charities and entertaining convalescent soldiers.
As the next generation of local service people returned home, they were encouraged to join the RSSILA, and this revitalised the branch and increased membership dramatically.
They were soon lobbying for rehabilitation support, preference in jobs and the need for local soldier settlement as well as the club having its own clubrooms for which fund-raising efforts were started.
The club continued to progress during this era, bolstered by an influx of World War Two veterans, and social events for members were popular during this time. They looked after the World War One veterans in their old age, regularly hosted ex-service patients for lunches and they formed a Lilydale RSL Women’s Auxiliary. They also supported our troops in Korea and Malaya with Christmas parcels and assisted one local soldier who returned from Korea severely wounded.
In 1950 the sub-branch purchased a number of shops on the north side of Main Street with the intention of building new clubrooms and a memorial hall there. While they waited for plans to be developed, the club opened a Novelty and Gift Store on one of the premises as a fund raiser for the club, this ran for a number of years. In the end, it was decided to sell these sites in order to purchase the home at 350 Main Street (where McDonalds is today), and renovate & remodel it and turn these into clubrooms with a liquor license.
The club started the decade well with strong membership but in the years that followed it struggled.
New and active membership declined, funds were drained as they attempted to fix and maintain the clubrooms and they lost their liquor license in 1963.
The following year they sold off the blocks of land around the building and by 1969 they decided to sell the clubrooms themselves.
During this time though, they regularly sent Christmas parcels to local troops serving in Vietnam and contrary to other RSL sub-branches, they actively sought out Vietnam veterans to join the club.
Members started the decade meeting at shared facilities at McCracken House at the Recreation Reserve.
They continued to encourage Vietnam veterans to join and in 1973 elected the first one, Gordon Dunn, as their president.
In 1971, the club purchased a California weatherboard bungalow at 52 Anderson St and proceeded to remodel the interior to turn it into acceptable clubrooms.
The Women’s Auxiliary continued to be a vital part of the club’s social and fund-raising life and an annual ‘Digger’s Day Dinner’ was started for older veterans each Christmas.
This was a decade that the club sadly limped along and membership, especially active members, waned.
The clubrooms became dilapidated, the club less active and its reputation in the town decreased.
In 1988 Korean War veteran Harry Smith was elected president and he kick started a rejuvenation program to bring the club back to life and restore its reputation.
With a new active committee, members set about undertaking maintenance, repainting and the cleaning of the interior and exterior of the building.
The Anzac Day Dawn service was transformed and attendance increased dramatically, as did its membership and social gatherings.
Soon the club’s standing in the community improved.
A dispute between the committee and the Women’s Auxiliary, which Bruce Ruxton later sorted, and the threat of the land the clubrooms were on being taken for a Lilydale by-pass, hung over their good work. Moving through these issues, a new bar was built, a liquor license organised, a new kitchen developed and a newsletter started.
In 1993 Harry Smith resigned and Eric Dosser, who would become the club’s longest serving president, was elected.
The progress continued with the club’s honour board unveiled, education programs started with local schools and with improvement grants helping to remodel the interior.
Some of its biggest achievements during this time were the Shire of Lillydale World War Two Honour Board and the Post-WW2 memorial wall.
Regular pool and darts competitions were started in the clubrooms as well.
The club continued its positive transformation. Membership increased, revenue increased and attendance at the Dawn & Remembrance Day services continued to break records.
Competition darts and pool at the club became popular as were the club’s social activities.
More improvements to the clubrooms were undertaken including a new bar, kitchen, stage area, toilets and outdoor BBQ.
Most impressive was the creation of the Yarra Valley Ex-Services Support Centre built out the back of the clubrooms that provided support for local ex-service people and their families.
The club began the decade adamant it would not have pokies and struggling to get new members and having its current members ageing.
Its Anzac Day Dawn Service had now grown to the largest community event on Lilydale’s calendar with record crowds each year.
More improvements to the clubrooms continued including new air conditioning and solar panels on the roof.
A new committee and president, Don Parsons, took over in 2014 and led the club into a new progressive era.
Their welfare and appeals programs were impressive and raised record amounts, membership increased and the local pool and dart competition continued to be popular.
Their extensive World War One centenary program produced a series of commemorative services, a concert, memorials, publications and a website.
They were even able to have the war memorial reserve named after the club’s founder, Ralph Goode MBE, and recreated the 1919 Peace march.
The Covid pandemic marred the start of the decade but not as much as the passing of two presidents in 2020, Don Parsons and Paul Payne.
Vietnam veteran Bill Dobson stepped up into the role and helped complete two long time projects for the club; the launch of the history of the sub-branch and the recreation of the marble Digger statute that once stood on the top of the war memorial.
Further improvements to the club included the creation of display cabinets to house the club’s militaria, turning the front room into a library and starting an education program for schools and scouts.
The Lilydale RSL current executive committee is made up of Bill Dobson (President), Terry Hickey (Vice President), Anthony McAleer (Secretary) and John O'Donoghue (Treasurer)
Other RSL Committee members include Alan Jackson, Chris Newell, Janet McGregor, Jimmy Slattery, Michael Witton, Robert Richardson & Sue Jackson.
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