A brief history of Upper Yarra RSL Sub Branch Inc.

The Sub Branch was issued its first charter on 1st July 1930.  We believe the club was then disbanded for a short time in the early 1950’s.

Our charter was reissued in 1958, with meetings being held in Riversdale Cafe Yarra Junction, Caddy’s Roadhouse in Wesburn & Warburton Hotel.  Home Hotel Launching Place became the regular meeting place with meetings held on a monthly basis, 8pm to 10pm due to early closing laws at the time.

Membership was so poor that for a long time there were no meetings due to a lack of numbers.  A few members thought it may improve if we had a more permanent meeting spot of our own, so we started looking for something.

After a lot of fund raising and searching, in 1978 we came up with a small house on a block of land in Hoddles Street, Yarra Junction.  Many hours were spent knocking down walls and cleaning it up to make it suitable for our members.  This building was paid for over a period of 4 years .  After a few years there we started looking for something bigger.

In 1984 we discovered that 119 Settlement Road, Yarra Junction, a deer farm with a kiosk and store room was up for sale.  We then formed a Co-Op to raise money to purchase it.  Renovations were done to make the building appropriate for our needs and the RSL prospered with a new active working committee.

In 1996 moves were made by the then committee to purchase the building off the Co-Op.  This was all achieved within 12 months.  Those Co-Op members we were able to find were paid out with the leftover funds from the other Co-Op members going into government revenue.

Early in 1998 we undertook a new round of renovations to further improve the building.  We then applied for and received gaming machines in June 1998. 

In 2009 we undertook major renovations, doubling the floor size, increasing the seating in the bistro, building a deck to accentuate the views and increasing our gaming machines from 20 to 30.

Currently (05/2023) we have between 950 & 1000 financial members, a very active committee and are able to provide more welfare assistance within the local community.