The Memorial’s photograph collection contains almost 1 million images. Not all of these are publically available but every day new images and descriptions are added. Flickr commons is a way of highlighting sets of images and we hope people can tell us something about them, or simply enjoy the selection.

The series of portraits, particularly those selected from the Korean War series, are a wonderful study of faces and we would love to know who they are. Perhaps because of censorship or maybe less than diligent record keeping, the information for these images never made it back to Australia, or perhaps they were meant to be representative and used for the media. This striking portrait of a young First World War soldier is featured in the Memorial’s travelling exhibition Icon and Archive.

Portrait of an unidentified First World War soldier by Asti Studio. This photograph features in the Memorial's travelling exhibition "Icon and Archive" P06003.001

Many of the images selected have just enough caption information to tell us when or where they were taken. In the case of the photographs taken at the Broadmeadows Camp, often only one person (the client who ordered the photograph) has their name recorded. When we started scanning these glass plate negatives many lovely images started to emerge that intrigued us, especially when the information in the Photographer’s register is so basic. We were delighted when the photograph of the lady holding the koala was discovered as there was no indication of this from the register, and of course only one soldier’s surname for this image is known.

This image was made by Darge Photographic Company at Broadmeadows Army Camp in April 1915. The photographer's register only lists Private Pinkerton so we do not know who either of the others are. The koala may be a mascot taken overseas when the soldiers embarked. If you have any further information or a story belonging to this image you can contribute at Flickr Commons DA08446

Photographer's register from Darge Photographic Studios at Broadmeadows Army Camp. Private MJ Pinkerton is highlighted.

You can help the Memorial enhance the collection by tagging and adding comments to the photographs. You might notice a friend or member of your family in an image, or have a story to share.