Community
24 November, 2025
Life membership for Mount Isa's RSL stalwart
Jim Nuttall is now a life member of the Queensland Branch of the Returned & Services League of Australia.
The backbone of Anzac Day services in Mount Isa for the past two decades, Jim Nuttall has been recognised for his efforts with life membership of the Queensland Branch of the Returned & Services League of Australia.
Jim was presented with the honour at a recent district meeting in Cloncurry.
“There'd been a bit of a rumour kicking around but I didn’t know 100 per cent until that meeting,” he said, becoming the first Mount Isa RSL representative to receive life membership.
The recognition caps more than 40 years of involvement with the RSL across Queensland, beginning in Innisfail in 1982.
“I used to liaise with the RSL regarding Anzac Day and Remembrance Day,” he said.
“I was down there one day and the secretary said, 'you know, you're eligible to join, why don't you join?'
“I sort of just never really given it any thought … so he trotted out the forms, I paid my money, I got my little card. They used to give you a little cloth back card in those days.”
From those early days, Jim’s dedication has shaped and strengthened every branch he has touched.
His service – spanning executive roles in Mossman and Mount Isa – covers 24 years on RSL committees, including stints as president, secretary, treasurer and board member.
However, it’s not the titles that define his contribution, but the sheer breadth of work behind the scenes: organising Anzac Day parades and services, coordinating commemorations, helping families source medals, managing funerals and poppy services, running raffles and badge sales, scheduling advocate visits, supporting war widows, and personally helping veterans in hospital or at home.
He is also credited by many with professionalising Mount Isa’s major commemorative events, transforming the Anzac Day and Remembrance Day services into some of the best-run ceremonies in regional Queensland.
“Mount Isa's been good to me,” Jim told North West Weekly.
“The city deserves to have a good Anzac Day, a good, well-run ceremony.”
Those refinements have had a real impact.
Mount Isa City Council has reported that Anzac Day Dawn Service attendance has increased by 40 per cent in recent years, with the professionalism and high standards of the ceremonies driving renewed community engagement.
Jim has also been central to planning the relocation and improvement of the city’s cenotaph, after years of damage and accessibility issues.
Beyond ceremonies, he has been a driving force for the Mount Isa Sub-Branch’s social life – from morning teas to barbecues, bowls nights, special dinners and major community events – all aimed at strengthening wellbeing and connection among veterans.
His years running Anzac Day Two-Up, coordinating locations, volunteers and equipment, have also raised tens of thousands of dollars for veterans’ causes, including charities such as Legacy.
Jim’s military background spans more than four decades.
He joined the Reserves after encouragement from a mate and never left.
“I was hanging out for National Service … my mate said, ‘why don't you come down and join anyway?’ So I went down there with him and then joined up … 44 years later, I'm still there. I'm still in.”
Jim came to Mount Isa as a Captain in the late 1990s as second-in-charge of D Company and was later promoted to Major.
His years here included working closely with the 51st Battalion, the Army Cadet Unit, and schools across the region.
His leadership has carried the Mount Isa Sub-Branch through good years and difficult ones – including the closure old RSL Club, where he was a board member during one of the organisation’s most challenging periods.
“I've enjoyed my time in Mount Isa,” Jim said.
“It's my way of probably giving back (to the community).”
Now 72, Nuttall remains committed to the RSL and has no plans to step back completely.
He has a little more than two years left as the president of the local sub-branch, but says he’s keen to stay involved at a minor level in future years.
“I've worked with some great people over the years,” he said.
“It's a great privilege.”
As he reflected on the recognition, Jim returned to what had always mattered most to him.
“You get to work with different people from all different backgrounds – some who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths and some who were born with a wooden spoon – but they all get together and work for the common good, getting that ceremony or that project going,” he said,
“That's what I like about it.”