Goulburn Mulwaree Museums Officer Claire Baddeley said the items, sourced by the Australian War Records Section in London during the war, were sent to Rocky Hill between 1920 and 1927.

“The ‘war trophies’, as they were known, include rifles, swords, trench daggers, uniforms, steel helmets, signals and gas equipment,” Ms Baddeley said.

“At the time the Director of the Australian War Memorial, John Treloar declared that the ‘war trophies’ in Goulburn placed ‘the city in a position to establish a country war museum which should be unexcelled in NSW and a source of great interest to citizens and visitors.”

They went on public display in the basement of the tower from 1927 and are today housed in the Rocky Hill Memorial Museum.

Ms Baddeley said the 16 ‘nationally significant’ items in the Rocky Hill War Memorial Museum’s collection provide insights into the experiences of Australian soldiers who served on the Western Front during WWI and their engagement with the ‘enemy’.

“These items, along with the rest of the Museum’s objects, stand out in Australia as an almost unique, publicly accessible military collection,” she said.

On display now at Rocky Hill War Memorial Museum are the 16 rare, unique and unusual items which include:

*Mauser anti-tank rifle, barrels and signage – which was an infantry rifle used by the German Army from mid-1918. This rifle was captured by Private Walter Stanley Barnes, 30th Battalion, AIF, at Nauroy, France, 29 September 1918. His name is etched into the base of the rifle;

*Body Armour - Body armour of various designs was used by the German Army and was less common and not widely used by the Allies. This collection of five pieces is of an unusual design and unknown nationality. They were recovered by Cptn. Frederick James Cotterell, 55th Battalion, on 10 July 1918, at Morlancourt, France. Few other examples survive with the date, place and person who collected it known.

*German sandbag. Filled sandbags were used for building defensive works. The use of brown paper for sandbags in this example was a German austerity measure, as hessian production was severely limited during the war. Known surviving examples of German sandbags from WWI are very limited.

*Gas mask for a horse. The German Army in April 1915 was the first to use gas in combat and gas masks soon became a standard item of soldier’s equipment and were developed for animals too. This example was manufactured from austerity materials - reclaimed cotton and paper- and was collected by Major Howard George Tolley, serving with HQ, 4th Division Australian Engineers, in 1918.

*German signs. The three signs relate to aspects of German Army life - medical care (related to wounded soldiers), food preparation (‘Wasser nur zum Kochen ‘– ‘water only used for cooking’), and unit administration (the 10th Company of the German Army), providing day-to-day details of the German administration of the war.

*German Infantry Assembly tape. This white woven cloth tape was used by the Allies and Germans during WWI to mark areas of assembly and safe paths through the wire. It was an ‘expendable store’, often left in place or discarded after use, so few examples still exist. This tape was found by the 1st Battalion in August 1918 and is associated with a significant battle involving Australians on the Western Front.

Rocky Hill War Memorial tower is open seven days a week. The Memorial Museum is open to the public from 10am to 4pm on weekends, public holidays and school holidays.