What Is an Australian Military Service Record?

Every Australian who enlisted in the armed forces has a service record held by the National Archives of Australia (NAA). These records are the official paper trail of a person's military career - from the day they signed up to the day they were discharged.

What do they contain?

A typical WWI service record includes enlistment papers with personal details (age, occupation, next of kin, medical examination), embarkation rolls showing which ship they sailed on and when, unit transfers and promotions, medical records including hospitalisations and wounds, disciplinary entries, pay records, and discharge papers.

WWII records follow a similar structure but are often more standardised, with typed forms replacing the handwritten entries common in WWI files.

Where are they held?

The NAA holds service records for all branches - Army, Navy, and RAAF. You can search for records through RecordSearch, the NAA's online catalogue. Many WWI records have been digitised and are freely available as scanned images.

Why do they matter?

For families, service records are often the most detailed surviving account of what their relative actually did during the war. Letters and diaries are rare. Medals tell you where someone served but not what happened to them. Service records fill in the gaps - the postings, the hospitalisations, the promotions, the disciplinary notes that reveal a person's character under pressure.

The challenge is that these records were written in military shorthand, abbreviations, and administrative jargon that is difficult for modern readers to interpret. That is exactly what Decode My Digger was built to solve.