Our collection has over 1 million records documenting the service of Australian men and women during World War II (WWII).
Over the past 15 years we’ve digitised more than 200,000 of these WWII records and made them available to view online through RecordSearch.
In April 2019, the Australian Government announced $10 million of funding to help us digitise the remaining 850,000 WWII service records over 4 years.
What we’ve done so far
Work on the WWII Digitisation Project started in July 2019.
Since then, we’ve digitised over 20,000 additional records and made them available online. Most of these records relate to RAAF personnel files (series A9301).
What we’re doing next
We’ve started large-scale digitisation of the remaining WWII service records. The first series of records being digitised are the Army Citizen Military Forces personnel files (series B884).
We are doing the work in stages. Batches of physical records will be temporarily unavailable to the public while they are being digitised.
Estimated dates when records are unavailable
| Series | Place of enlistment | Dates some physical records unavailable |
|---|---|---|
| B884 | Tasmania | 8 October 2020 to 14 January 2021 |
| B884 | Western Australia | 15 October 2020 to 14 January 2021 |
| B884 | Northern Territory | 15 October 2020 to 19 November 2020 |
| B884 | South Australia | 26 November 2020 to 25 February 2021 |
| B884 | Queensland | 17 December 2020 to 8 April 2021 |
| B884 | New South Wales | 25 February 2021 to 1 July 2021 |
If you can’t wait for a particular record to be digitised as part of this process, you can request a digital copy in advance (fees apply).
