AWS RDS PostgreSQL dump/restore - syntax error
A pg_dump output with the -Fc (custom) is not a SQL script, it's a compressed archive that only pg_restore is able to handle.

You may either pass the dump file to pg_restore and pipe its output to psql (often done that way and close to what you tried):

pg_restore /home/jboss/proc_dump_jan15.dump | psql  --host=blahrds [other options]...


...or use the -d,-h,... and other options of pg_restore to have it connect to the database and skip the psql invocation.

See pg_restore manpage for 9.3 for details.


  Nb. the EC2 database is PG 9.0 and the RDS database is PG 9.3.5 but I
  assume this is ok as the dump/restore will deal with the migration?


The recommended method is to use pg_dump 9.3 against the 9.0 database to create the dump. The reasoning is that newer versions always know how to extract older databases such that they will import flawlessly into their version. The opposite is not true, since obviously at the time when pg_dump 9.0 is released, the authors don't know what compatibility problems future versions might bring.