- More than $1.1 million invested to support Ex-Service Organisations across WA
- 25 Ex-Service Organisations (ESO), including 23 Return Service League (RSL) Sub-Branches benefiting from funding commitments
- Funding is improving veteran facilities, memorials, and places of commemoration across metropolitan and regional WA
The Cook Labor Government recognises that Ex-Service Organisations (ESOs), veterans, and families of veterans in Western Australia are the custodians of our wartime heritage.
This Remembrance Day, the Cook Labor Government is reaffirming its commitment to WA's veteran community through the delivery of its 2025 election commitment, to fund minor improvements for Ex-Service Organisations across the State.
More than $1.1 million has been invested through 25 funding commitments, benefiting 25 ESOs, including 23 RSL Sub-Branches, to help ensure WA facilities that honour, support, and connect veterans are maintained for future generations.
These improvements are already making a meaningful difference to the way that veterans and families of veterans connect and commemorate at these facilities and memorials.
In 2025, the Cook Labor Government committed $20,000 to Australian War Widows WA to install blinds within unit residences provided to widows. Baldivis-based ESO Totally and Partially Disabled Veterans of WA received funding to install solar panels and groundskeeping equipment to assist with the upkeep costs of their facility.
The Veterans Transition Centre received $30,000 to install a new multi-use amphitheatre, to support social connection amongst veteran families who either reside or visit the Jarrahdale facility.
Many RSL Sub-branches also received funding, including the Wanneroo RSL Sub-Branch ($20,000) to complete upgrades to its clubrooms and museum; Two Rocks-Yanchep RSL Sub-Branch ($10,000) for the provision of memorial plaques and appropriate display and storage cabinets; and Mount Lawley-Inglewood RSL Sub-Branch ($20,000) to upgrade infrastructure and landscaping at the Queens Memorial Reserve, where local veterans hold their annual Remembrance Day service.
Canning Districts RSL Sub-Branch received $333,000 for critical upgrades to its facilities, including completing earthworks and erecting a memorial monument.
In the southern suburbs, Rockingham RSL Sub-Branch received $24,000 for clubroom upgrades and new equipment, and Kwinana RSL Sub-Branch received $7,000 to install a memorial sign and new IT equipment.
Coolgardie RSL is one of six RSL Sub-Branches in regional WA to receive a funding boost, with $30,000 provided for outdoor overhead covering at the Sub-Branch facility. Northam RSL received $15,000 to refurbish their administration building.
Other RSL Sub-Branches to benefit from the funding include the Bassendean, Ellenbrook, Port Kennedy, Osborne Park, Armadale, Cockburn, Bellevue, Bicton Fremantle, Riverton, Mandurah, Exmouth, and Capel.
With many of the projects already completed, and others underway, the Cook Labor Government remains committed to supporting veterans and families of veterans to live in WA and recognises that ESOs like the RSL WA and their Sub-Branches connect local communities with veterans through commemoration. The facilities they operate from provide a space where veterans can come together and remember those who sacrificed for our liberties.
As stated by Veterans Minister Hannah Beazley:
"RSL Sub-Branches play an important role in supporting veterans and families of veterans, while also bringing people together through a range of community commemorations.
"This funding is helping upgrade key facilities ensuring that the members, volunteers, and visitors to these ESOs have access to functional spaces that support the important work they do.
"Supporting new and existing memorial infrastructure will help to preserve WA's wartime heritage, including the stories of the service members who have died as a result of service, making sure that they, and the sacrifices they made, will never be forgotten.
"The Cook Labor Government is proud to support ESOs across the State, whose volunteers make a significant contribution to keeping our communities connected, inclusive and resilient."
