Official History of Australian Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Post-Cold War Operations Project

Collection relating to the work of Australian War Memorial historians involved in the writing of the Official History of Australian Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Post-Cold War Operations, 2004-2006.

The collection consists of 15 postcards with inscriptions on reverse. The postcards have various authors, all of whom are historians and researchers who worked on the Official History of Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Post-Cold War Operations.

Most of the postcards are addressed to Dr Garth Pratten; two are to Dr John Connor and three to the Official History Peacekeeping team, known in-house as PKOH. Authors of the postcards are Dr John Connor, Dr Peter Londey, Dr Garth Pratten and Dr Rosalind Hearder.

The collection of postcards are dated from 2004 to 2006. They are sent from Perth, Maputo, Melbourne, Kigali, Phnom Penh, Townsville, New York , Masada, Ottawa, Alise Saint-Reine, Cyprus, New York, Bendigo and Hobart.

In the early years of the Peacekeeping Official History the team had a tradition of sending postcards back from places they were visiting, generally in the course of research, but not always.

‘John’ is Dr John Connor who was a member of the team and wrote the chapters on Cambodia that now appear in Volume III. Originally, he was also going to write the Rwanda chapters, hence the visit to Africa.

‘Rosalind’ is Dr Rosalind Hearder, one of the original research assistants and the first to undertake a research trip to the UN Archives in New York.

‘Peter L’ is Dr Peter Londey, the Deputy General Editor of the series and eventually co-author of Volume I. ‘Christina’ is Christina Spittel, his partner.

An explanation of some of the postcards is provided by ‘G’, Dr Garth Pratten. His purpose for travelling to various destinations:
- Bendigo: to interview Carl Chirgwin, an Australian de-miner
- New York: to consult records at the UN Archives
- Hobart: not PKOH business, but on official War Memorial business for a 'Bring in your Memorabilia day'
- Cyprus: Having left the AWM Dr Pratten worked for the British Army and was sent to run a course at their base in Cyprus. Whilst there he conducted some interviews for the OHPK project with personnel invovled in the UN Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).