Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial

The Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial Ballarat

The Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial in Ballarat is a national memorial of national significance, unusually situated outside Canberra. It is on a number of Heritage registers. It includes 36,200 names and associated stories. There are 4,500 names where final resting places are known and 8,500 names where no known grave exists.
The Memorial committee met in 1996. At that time, there was no official list of POW’s. Details had to be searched individually by examining service files and other records. About 50 or so new names are added each year as the research continues. Japanese records were acquired in 1999.
Memorial designed by Peter Blizzard. The angle of the memorial is at 30 degrees, considered as optimum for viewing. The memorial opened in 2004 by the Governor General Cosgrove. The memorial includes panels arranged by war including Boer War – 291 names, WW1 – 8 panels of 4200 names 9 panels for WW2 – 4200 names. One man is listed for both WW1 and WW2.
A lone pone from Gallipoli has been planted near the Memorial.
Visit the website where a lot of information about the names listed is added and updated. Education kits have also been developed for primary and secondary teachers.

View our list of true life accounts of Australian Prisoners of War.

Reserching an Anzac

Military historian Neil C Smith will be a special guest speaker for Diamond Valley’s Family History Fest program this month at Diamond Valley Library:  Researching an Anzac Wednesday April 29 at 1.30 pm.

With over 24 years' Australian army experience, Lieutenant Colonel Neil Smith understands military jargon, abbreviations and the various organisational and recording systems employed by the army, navy and air force.  He is the author of That Elusive Digger. 

Neil’s presentation at the annual State Library of Victoria Family History Feast in 2013 can be accessed on the SLV website.

There has certainly be an update since that time including the development ofDiscovering Anzacs which provides a new gateway to access service records of Australians and New Zealanders who served in world war one. This site also allows researchers to transcribe records, add their stories, including group photos, add relationships and external links.

Researchers may also be interested in this guide Researching your Australian military ancestor

Image: Whittlesea War Memorial

Lighthorsemen of World War 1

Military historian Dr David Holloway will discuss his book “Endure and Fight A Detailed History of the 4th Light Horse Regiment, AIF, 1914-1919 : Gallipoli, Sinai and Palestine, France and Belgium’
next week at Mill Park and again at Diamond Valley Libraries.


In November 2011 Shrine of Remembrance Trustees awarded the Shrine of Remembrance Medal to Dr. Holloway. This award in its fourth year recognises an individual or group that has made an outstanding contribution to the community understanding of the service and sacrifices made by Victorians for their country in times of war and peacekeeping.
David had been a strong advocate for the remembrance of Australia’s Light Horse Heritage. He has undertaken a mostly lone campaign in order to ensure that the memory of the men and horses of Victoria’s 4th Light Horse Regiment is not forgotten. Recently David self-published ‘Endure and Fight: a detailed history of the 4th Light Horse Regiment, AIF 1914-1919 Gallipoli, Sinai and Palestine, France and Belgium’. This work is 853 pages in total and has been a labour of love for David over many years. David’s book is regarded as one of the most comprehensive unit histories ever written.

His work was endorsed by HRH Prince Charles, who personally contributed to the publication. David continues to promote the history of this important Victorian Regiment, by speaking to many different organisations and continuing his work as a volunteer guide at the Shrine of Remembrance.


Copies of Dr Holloway’s book will be available to purchase.
Mill Park Library – Monday April 23 11.– 12noon

Diamond Valley Library – Tuesday April 24 1.30pm – 2.30 pm

How should we commemorate the Anzac centenary?

Australians across the country are encouraged to share their ideas and suggestions on how the Anzac Centenary should be commemorated at home and around the world.

From 2014 to 2018 marks 100 years since the First World War and Australians are invited to have their say on ways to commemorate the anniversary.

Submissions close on 17 September 2010. To make a submission visit www.anzaccentenary.gov.au.

New Australian database on Ancestry

Researching a military ancestor in N.S.W? A new database on Ancestry is the

New South Wales, Australia, Cowra Military Camps Personnel Photo Index, 1905-1970
This data collection contains index of photographs taken of Armed Forces Personnel stationed at Cowra Military Camps and POW Camps during World War II. The indexes were made from Images of over 4,000 of the soldiers who trained at Cowra Military Camp prior to embarking for overseas during World War II.

Information collected from these photographs includes:

Names of soldiers
Ranks of soldiers
Date the photo was taken
Negative number
Other notes
The original photographs from this database were provided by: Cowra Family History Group Inc. PO Box 495 Cowra NSW 2794.

Ancestry Library Edition can be accessed for free via the Genealogy link on the Yarra Plenty Regional Library website at any PC in every Branch Library.

World War 2 records limited free access via Footnote

Family history researchers may be interested in the freely accessible information available via Footnote till the end of January 2010.

The World War 2 collection although mainly Amercian in content is certainly worth a browse as is the Holocaust collection

Footnote is a subscription based website which helps you find and share historic documents, via partnerships with The National Archives, the Library of Congress and other institutions.

Researching your family's military heritage

An introduction on this subject for family history researchers will be presented at Diamond Valley Library this Wednesday April 9. 2008 marks the 90th anniversary of the final year of the First World War.
Websites for family history researchers include:
Australian War Memorial
National Archives of Australia
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
World War 2 Nominal Roll
Nominal Roll of Vietnam Veterans

Nominal Roll of Australian Veterans in the Korean War
Australians in the Boer War - Oz-Boer Database project
National Serviceman’s AssociationPartial nominal roll searchable by Force and year, but it is not official like other nominal rolls. Voluntarily submitted information only

Cyndi’s list Australia & New Zealand MilitaryA comprehensive list of links that is constantly updated

Australians at War
Australia’s War 1939-1945
World War 1 – Trenches on the web: an internet history of the great war
ANZAC Research site
Leaders of ANZACS
Includes names of Officers who died at Gallipoli

First AIF Order of battle
Peter Dunn's Australia @ War
Digger HistoryAn unofficial history of the Australian Armed Services. To see what is on offer here browse the master or full indexes.

Zentsuji Camp, Shikoku Australian, New Zealand & Fiji POW 1942-1945Includes names of prisoners of war.

Borneo POW
War memorials in Australia

Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research centre, Melbourne

AIF Database

Australian War Graves Photographic Archive

Using War records in Family History Research (How to)

Service Dossiers and Other Defence Personnel Records in the National Archives of Australia talk

Online Exhibition: A Website to Remember
Gain insights into the Gallipoli conflict from the viewpoint of the official World War 1 correspondents. The website includes transcripts of the news stories of four Australian journalists, and highlights their role in the development of an Australian identity. It includes war images, accounts of battles, and examples of censorship and discussions of the Australian legend and a copy of a letter written by Keith Murdoch, to Prime Minister Fisher regarding the conditions facing Australian troops at Gallipoli.

Cenotaph - an online resource for all parts of New Zealand
Cenotaph is a database of New Zealand deceased service personnel. It is based on those who died in periods of conflict, especially during the 20th century. However, content now includes virtually all World War 1 soldiers and nurses who served overseas based on the published embarkation rolls. The database consists of over 114,000 records. The focus is biographical, with a strong emphasis on war service.

Veterans History projectInterviewing military relatives: US based, some tips here
(Ken Burn's "The War" has recently been showing on ABC1 on Sunday afternoons)

Wartime memories project
Suggested questions or memory prompters for oral history interviews

Reading: Digging for diggers: a guide to researching an Australian soldier of the Great War 1914-1918 by Graeme Hosken

“When you go home, tell them of us, we gave our today for your tomorrow” – Weary Dunlop

Are you researching Victorian Volunteer Force personnel?

Researchers can now access an index to Victorian Volunteer Force personnel for the period 1860-61.

The index was compiled by Thomas Corfmat from information in Victorian Review: A journal of the Volunteer Forces and Civil Service, Bankers and Insurance Record, and Literary Gazette, 1860-61. It provides the name, rank, regiment and company for over 4,300 members of the various volunteer defence forces in Victoria. It is a valuable research aid, as volunteer force service records for the years 1860-61 simply do not exist (records from 1863 onward are held by the National Archives of Australia).

The index is available in microfiche format and can be accessed at Ivanhoe and Diamond Valley libraries.