A crime scene has been established at the Darwin RSL Club, after a fire "totally gutted" the premises in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Fire crews were called to the Cavenagh Street venue, in Darwin's CBD, shortly after 1:00am.
Large flames engulfed the top floor of the two-story building and it remained alight for several hours.
It took 17 firefighters until about 4:30am to get control of the blaze, which had threatened to spread to nearby buildings.
No injuries have been reported, but fire investigator Tony Miles said the top floor had been destroyed.
"The top floor is totally gutted. The air conditioning and the ceiling has collapsed so there's considerable damage in the upper level of the building," he said.
While he said some memorabilia was badly damaged, he believed other items could potentially be saved.
"I've had a preliminary look upstairs and it looks as though some of the memorabilia might be able to be salvaged," he said.
"Some of it has been quite heavily damaged. Other items might well be able to be saved, which is great news for the RSL."
He asked anyone with footage or video of the early stages of the fire to contact NT Police or Fire and Rescue Services.
A NT Police spokesperson a crime scene has been established at the site of the fire, and investigators were working to determine its cause.
No roads are blocked.
While there was water inundation in the downstairs part of the building, there was no fire or smoke damage.
Tough times for RSL club
Last week the club and the sub-branch held a meeting about finances, and another meeting was held just yesterday.
Darwin RSL sub-branch president Bob Shewring said it had only recently spent about $2 million on renovations.
While he was relieved no one was hurt, he said some of the lost memorabilia was irreplaceable.
"The whole thing's a concern. When you just spent $2 million doing the place up, and then find that when you look at the place now, it's just really sad," he said.
"Some of the stuff might not be able to be replaced because it was gifted to us by people that have passed on."
He said the club had planned to meet early next week with the Chief Minister and others about how to move forward.
It is the second time the club has had to rebuild — it was wiped out in the 1970s during Cyclone Tracy.
The cause of the fire is not yet known.
