Welcome from the Director
Welcome to the web site of the Australian War Memorial. The Memorial
is a unique Australian national institution that combines a shrine,
a world-class museum, and an extensive archive. It is a very special
place and I would like you to know more about it.
Our web site can help you to:
- plan your visit to the Memorial
- research your family history
- learn more about Australia’s involvement in overseas conflict and peacekeeping
- discover items in our vast national collection, ranging from works of art, photographs, and militaria to relics such as aircraft, tanks, and guns
- purchase a book, photographic image, or souvenir from our online shop, or join our Friends.
My Director’s favourites will give you an indication of our collection’s diversity and a feeling for the commemorative spirit captured at the Memorial.
In the Virtual tour, you can see the commemorative area, including the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier and the Hall of Memory, as well as our galleries and exhibition spaces: the First and Second World War galleries, Aircraft Hall, and ANZAC Hall.
Our most consulted resource is the Roll of Honour, which provides details of the more than 102,000 Australian servicemen and women who have fallen in all conflicts since the Sudan commitment of 1885. The Australians at war section of the web site is a rich source of information for anyone interested in Australian military history.
Digitised versions of Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 and Official History of Australia in the War of 1939–1945 can be read and searched online. Our aim has been to provide access to these volumes for all Australians. You can also read about Official History of Australian Peacekeeping and Post–Cold War Operations, which the Commonwealth Government has authorised the Memorial to research and write.
The web site also provides access to selected digitised Australian Army war diaries. These records of the daily activities of army units are available for the Second World War, Korean War, and South East Asian conflicts. In 2007 the Memorial commenced digitisation of war diaries from the First World War. The digitised images will be progressively added to the web site as each diary is completed.
You can visit many of the Memorial’s online exhibitions and experience the stories they tell first hand. Exhibitions include:
- Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse: the road to Damascus
- George Lambert: Gallipoli and Palestine landscapes
- Focus: photography and war, 1945–2006
- Allies in adversity: Australia and the Dutch in the Pacific War
- Fifty Australians
- Shared experience: art and war – Australia, Britain and Canada in the Second World War
- Looking back: Australians on Crete – works of art by Michael Winters
- Dawn of the legend
- Australia under attack, 1942–1943
The online Encyclopedia is another useful source of information for students and family historians, while the ReQuest online reference service allows you to search the knowledge base for frequently asked questions or to fill in and submit a reference form online. The interactive KidsHQ has also proved very popular.
While not all of our collection items can be displayed in our galleries at the same time, you can search many of them on this site by using Collections Search. If you would like your own copy of an image you can buy a reproduction in our Online Shop.
This web site is designed to be of value to you: please tell us what you would like to see and how we can help you. I invite you to explore the site to find out more about the Memorial and Australia's military history.
Steve Gower AO
Director, Australian War Memorial
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