The Commonwealth Department of Defence assumed control of Naval defence on Federation in 1901 and maintained Navy personnel records until the Navy Office was established in 1911. Most records of Navy service held by the National Archives in Canberra date from 1911.
The Record of Service card was the main record maintained by the Navy about serving members from 1911 until 1970. Cards provided a summary of service including postings, promotions, awards and personal details (including next of kin), and were added to over the member's entire period in the Navy. Cards were maintained for service in the Royal Australian Navy, the Women's Royal Australian Navy Service, the Naval Reserve, the Naval Volunteer Reserve, the Naval Nursing Services, Naval Dockyard Police, members enlisted or on loan, duty or exchange from the Royal Navy, and reservists voluntarily serving for a continuous period in excess of 28 days.
Digital copies of most Navy service cards for the period may be viewed on the Archives RecordSearch database. Photocopies of cards can be ordered by contacting the National Archives as follows:
National Archives of Australia
PO Box 7425
Canberra BC ACT 2610Tel: 1300 886 881
Fax: 1300 886 882
Email: ref@naa.gov.au
Confidential reports on Naval officers, which date from 1912, were an annual report about each officer's performance and suitability for promotion. As some of this information may be personally sensitive, confidential reports are not always available for public access.
Separate correspondence files were created for each serving member to cover matters such as allowances, postings, promotions, discipline, and long service. Up to 30 files may have been created on each member. The main Navy correspondence file series, for the period 1959 to 1967, is held by the Archives in Canberra. Correspondence records covering earlier service are held in our Melbourne office, see Fact Sheet 138 – Navy service records held in Melbourne. File reference numbers for these files will often be located on the Record of Service card. Many of these files, especially for earlier years, were destroyed once they ceased to be of administrative use. Since 1968 Navy service files have been kept in a separate file series. Files are arranged by service number with a numeric prefix (from 1 to 25) indicating the type of file.
Digital copies of these records may be viewed on RecordSearch. Photocopies may be purchased from the National Archives (see address details above). For further details see Fact Sheet 63 – Sources of information about military service and Fact Sheet 177 – Defence service records for WW I and WW II.
Most members of the naval forces who returned from World War I and World War II were eligible for a war gratuity or ‘bonus’ (paid as cash or as an issue of government bonds) in recognition of their service. War gratuity applications for both world wars are held by the Archives in Canberra. All applications following WW I service are listed on RecordSearch and searches of the series CP979/2 using the name of the member should identify the record of interest. Applications for WW II are not fully listed and the series cannot be effectively searched unless you know the member’s gratuity number.
Other sources of information about those who had Navy service include crew lists, the published Navy Lists, records of service with the Royal Australian Navy Reserve (to 1912), lists of naval appointments and discharges (1903–31) and the nominal rolls of Naval personnel during World War II.
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs has prepared online databases that include details of all who had RAN service during World War II , the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
Merchant Navy Record of Service cards for people who served on Australian Merchant vessels are held in Canberra as microfilm in series A8877. The cards are arranged by family name and give some personal information, the name of ships and dates of service. Other Merchant Navy service information can be sought from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which can be contacted as follows:
Australian Maritime Safety Authority
GPO Box 2181
Canberra ACT 2601
Tel: (02) 6279 5000
Fax: (02) 6279 5866
 | Royal Australian Naval Reserve (RANR) – Record of Service forms* | 1897–1912 | CT190/1 | ||
| Record books of appointments, service and discharge in the Australian Navy | 1903–31 | A8363 | ||
| Ships' ledgers, HMA ships (include crew lists) | 1911–56 | A4624 | ||
| Record of service cards – Naval officers | 1911–70 | A6769 | ||
| Record of service cards – Petty Officers and men | 1911–70 | A6770 | ||
| Confidential reports – Naval officers (forms S206, PP101) | 1912–ongoing | A3978 | ||
| WW I Army service records (includes Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force and Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train) | 1914–20 | B2455 | ||
| War Gratuity forms – WW I service | 1920 | CP979/2 | ||
| War Gratuity forms – WW II service (the war gratuity number is needed if these forms are to be to used effectively) | 1939–45 | CP979/1 | ||
| Nominal rolls of naval personnel | 1939–45 | A9951 | ||
| National service cards for RANR | 1950–65 | A12907 | ||
| Navy correspondence files | 1958–74 | A1813 | ||
| Navy personnel files | 1968–ongoing\ | A2440 | ||
| Microfilmed employment records, seafarers (Merchant Navy) | 1922–83 | A8877 | ||
* Royal Australian Naval Reserve (RANR) – Record of Service forms (1897–1912) are held in series CT190/1 to CT190/50. This link will take you to series CT190/1.
You can obtain more information about the record series listed above (and the items within the series) fromRecordSearch, the Archives database. Follow the links in the series lists to go directly to information on that series. You can also use RecordSearch to find out about the agencies that created the records and to locate more records on your subject. You might also explore PhotoSearch to find out if there are photos pertaining to your subject.
RecordSearch and PhotoSearch are available online and in all Archives reading rooms.
Australian Naval Forces service records from 1901 to 1913 are held by the Australian War Memorial. Contact the War Memorial as follows:
Australian War Memorial
GPO Box 345
Canberra ACT 2601
Tel: (02) 6243 4315
Fax: (02) 6243 4545
Email: info@awm.gov.au
Records of personnel who served with colonial navies before 1901 may be held by the relevant State government archives. Address details are given in Fact sheet 2 – Addresses of other Australian archival institutions.
Comments or other feedback can be sent to archives@naa.gov.au
updated November 2007