Amongst the first acquisitions was DAP Mark 21 Bristol Beaufighter A8-328 ex Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) that had been used as playground equipment at The Lord Mayor's Children's Camp at Portsea and was at risk of being scrapped.

In January an Avro Anson was purchased from Flinders Island Airlines, ( VH-FIA) and in May a Gloster Meteor was acquired from the Department of Supply.

Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) donated a de Havilland Tiger Moth in mid-1963, and the year was rounded out by recovering a CAC Wirraway from the dump at East Sale RAAF base .

In October 1964, a Percival Proctor was donated, and by this stage the Department of Civil Aviation had agreed to lease the group land at Moorabbin Airport, with a fence erected on 20 May 1965.

In 1966, the AARG returned to the farming district near Colac and collected a Curtiss Kittyhawk fuselage, while February 1967 saw the most spectacular arrival when a former Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Fairey Firefly was flown from Bankstown in New South Wales to Moorabbin.

Other aviation museums would form in Australia but none would acquire the vast range of aircraft types, all of which related directly to Australian history.

The collection ranges from gliders and homebuilts to World War II combat aircraft, jet fighters, crop dusters and four engine airliners.

A new facility will be built there as part of Stage One of the Community Heritage Precinct, and will finally see all aircraft undercover and protected for the first time in the Museum's history.