About

The Western Australian Military Digital Library is a freely and publicly available website that is a repository of military documents and items with a connection to Western Australia.

ORIGIN OF THE DIGITAL LIBRARY

The Western Australian Military Digital Library was established as a joint project of FamilyHistoryWA and the Army Museum of Western Australia. In 2016, the Army Museum requested the assistance of FamilyHistoryWA, and specifically the Military Special Interest Group, to digitise and transcribe its extensive collection of historical records, in order to make them publicly and freely available as a community service. The project began informally in February 2017 and an agreement between the Army Museum and FamilyHistoryWA was signed on 28 October 2017. This website was launched on 26 March 2021.
The next step in the journey was to become an independent entity and the Digital Library became an Incorporated Association in November 2021. We are now a not-for-profit registered charity, independent of FamilyHistoryWA and with our own Board of Governance. The Digital Library showcases Airforce, Navy and Nursing images to complement the original Army images.

PROCESS

The original records are digitised and preserved as high quality images. Smaller versions of the images are then uploaded onto this website. They are immediately accessible to any searcher and do not require a membership. Documents such as diaries and letters are then transcribed to enable them to become fully searchable. Each person has their own page on the website and as new records are digitised, links between people and publications are created. If you would like to be involved in any stage of this process please contact the Project Co-ordinators via the Contribute page.

FUTURE

There is no end date for this project. The Army Museum of Western Australia was our founding partner and we are now also forging partnerships with other organisations and individuals. Material is regularly being made available to us to digitise. Community members offer their own memorabilia to us to add to the site. We do not hold or store the original items so there are no constraints on the size of this Digital Library.