In addition to this main MERSL website, we also have a second one which is focused on the club’s memorabilia and history. After the closure of the Eltham Sub Branch in 2010-11, the Montmorency Sub Branch invited the Eltham members to be a part of a renamed Montmorency Eltham Sub Branch.

As part of that process, Eltham’s premises were sold, under the authority of the Victorian Branch of the RSL, and some of the proceeds of the sale were allocated to the Montmorency Sub Branch to assist in expanding our premises to accommodate the increase in membership which would result from the re-structure. Eventually, the combined Sub Branch was officially renamed as the Montmorency Eltham RSL. 

Prior to this arrangement, both groups had a significant collection of military memorabilia and personal items associated with local members or their older relatives or other local identities. In 2013 the Heidelberg Sub Branch was also closed, and the Montmorency Sub Branch received many items of memorabilia from them. So now we have a collection which reflects something of the history of all three groups. Many items from those Sub Branches are now on display in glass cabinets in the Memorabilia Room or is stored in an adjacent room. It also includes a library of over 400 books, which are retained mainly because of the connection they have to the service experiences of our local members. 

The originally separate clubs had a history reaching back to the 1930s. Some of that history has been recorded in books written by Max Dimmack and they are in our collection (Max was a well-known member of both clubs over many years but is now no longer with us). Other aspects of our history (principally that related to the Montmorency RSL) have also been drawn together from various sources and they describe, in a single file, the origins of the Montmorency RSL since its early days. 

Those two areas of our club – memorabilia and Sub Branch history – contain enough information to warrant the design of a second and separate website which is dedicated to the publication all of that history. That website can be accessed from the link below or by going to sites.google.com/view/mersl.

Contact

Paul McColl –  memormersl@mersl.com.au

or call us on (03) 9434 2085