These videos, questions and photographs are provided to give you an insight into the experiences of ordinary Australians during wartime. The interviews were recorded with Australian veterans who have participated in recent commemorative missions with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, returning to the places they served during wartime. As memories, the stories are not intended to be interpreted as a definitive account of war; rather, they give an insight into personal reflections on the individual’s experience of war.

The photographs have been drawn from the collections of the Australian War Memorial and the private collections of veterans, and illustrate the experiences of other servicemen and women in similar circumstances.

We encourage you to use this material as a starting point for your own research, and to explore other sources to gain an understanding of how these individual stories fit into the broader story of a particular campaign or conflict. We also encourage you to use this material to think about oral history and photographs as historical sources. Further information on the photographs included can be found on the Australian War Memorial website, using the reference numbers provided.

The collection of these oral histories is a pilot project which may be expanded to include other veteran groups in the future. Currently, the scope of the project is limited to collecting the stories of veterans who have participated in missions since 2012.