Digitising World War II service records

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 10,000 additional records (more than 390,000 individual pages) and made them available online. Most of these records relate to RAAF personnel files (series A9301).

What we’re doing next

We’re starting large-scale digitisation of the remaining WWII service records in May 2020. Army Citizen Military Forces personnel files (series B884) will be part of the first batch.

We are doing the work in stages. Batches of records will be temporarily unavailable to the public while they are being digitised. 

Come back to this page to see what records are currently unavailable and which ones have been recently digitised. 

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). 

Recent discoveries

Explore some of the WWII records we've digitised so far.

Letter outlining Frederick Marriott's request to be repatriated via New York to take up a position at a ballroom dancing school.

Arthur Murray's School of Ballroom

Read one man's request to follow his dreams and become a professional dance teacher.
Advertisement for the Queanbeyan centenary celebrations in 1938

A croc and a parade

Uncover the link between crocodile hunting in Northern Australia and Queanbeyan's 1938 Centenary Celebrations.
Photos of Lieutenant-Colonel Margaret Spencer from her service record

The Little Colonel

Margaret Spencer was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Australian Women's Army Service. Nicknamed 'the Little Colonel', she was one of the best officers in her training school.
Letter of reference for Harold Noakes from Adair Bros drapers in Camberwell

Letters of reference

Many service files contain letters of reference from businesses in support of their employees enlisting. Some also show the negative impact of losing staff to the war effort.