Nor could the former agricultural science teacher imagine the facility, which started out in a corner of the library, would collect more than 10,000 items.

But the museum, now bursting at the seams, marked this milestone on Saturday with a lunch function at the school for some 50 people, including Goulburn MP Pru Goward, Mayor Bob Kirk and some of the most influential people in its development.

Mr Needham started the facility in 1992 from personal interest. His father had served in World War Two and rarely talked about his experience. Years later, Mr Needham noticed that many veterans still suffered post traumatic stress and decided they should have something that conveyed the stories of their experience. The idea also appealed to the teacher in him.

“The bottom line is that no matter what book you read, there’s a whole lot of information people don’t know about. So the idea was to get kids to do their own research on family members to give them an appreciation of what they went through,” he said.

The research has taken the most unexpected turns.

One young girl in the school’s ANZAC Club brought in a metal trunk that a great uncle from Taralga had brought back from World War One. It had never been opened but inside was undeveloped film showing the ship convoy that went to Gallipoli. He had been in the first contingent.

Former Mulwaree High School Brett Feld took an early interest in the museum, picking up on stories he’d heard as a child about family members who had served in the wars.

“Personally I really relished learning about it. My great grandfather, William Cowie Cooper, served at Gallipoli and I wanted to know more,” he said.

“He was shot in the head then evacuated to Lemnos and had a plate inserted in his head. He lived well into his 80s. I can remember sitting on his lap as a three-year-old and running my hand through his thin hair and feeling this hole in his head.”

Mr Feld, now proprietor of Farmer Felds, volunteered many hours at the museum as a student and stayed connected after school. He also contributed financially to a book launched on Saturday detailing the facility’s 25 years, coordinated by Paul and Shannon Chalker. 

Mr Feld was one of three students chosen to attend the interment of the unknown soldier at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra in 1993. He described the experience as “awesome.” 

Mr Needham told The Post the facility had at times been instrumental in keeping children at school, who otherwise would have dropped out.

Director of Public Schools NSW (Southern Tablelands), Carolynne Merchant said the museum was a fantastic resource where students could look back at the aptitude and resourcefulness of their own family’s servicemen and women.

She told the crowd it brought home the “humanity, humility and realism” of war and embedded similarly strong values in the children.  

The function heard not only about the museum’s educative achievements but valuable cultural links forged with Mulwaree High’s sister school, the College Des Marches de I’Artois in Marquoin, France, and the people of that town. Student and teacher delegations from the schools have visited each other. On ANZAC day, 2011, the College’s students marched with Mulwaree in the Auburn Street parade.

“The project has always been about education and history and acknowledging and commemorating the sacrifice of our servicemen and women,” Mr Needham said.

He said the Museum could not have survived without the generosity of key individuals like the late Val Casey and George Swanson, the service clubs, retired Australian War Memorial curator Peter Burness and the many people who had donated items. 

Paul and Shannon Chalker were also thanked for their efforts in compiling the book. Their involvement started when their children, Leigh and Penny, researched two great-great uncles’ involvement in the Great War. Austin Stanley Chalker was killed at Pozierres in August, 1916, while his brother, Ernest Chalker died in Belgium the following October. Both had enlisted at Kingsdale.

“It has really opened their eyes,” Mr Chalker said of the research.

“What the museum has achieved in 25 years is incredible. It has really made people more aware.”

Mr Chalker hoped a research centre, housing the facility’s expanding collection, could be built in the near future. It was a sentiment echoed by Mr Needham.

Other special guests on Saturday included former Mulwaree High principal, Neville Street, of Bowral.

The school’s hospitality students put their skills to work, catering for the three-course lunch, and won a round of applause for their efforts.