Joint Australia - New Zealand ANZAC Tribute

Australians and New Zealanders will be able to access a shared archive of World War I records online to commemorate the Anzac centenary, Internal Affairs Minister Chris Tremain and Australia’s Attorney-General, Senator George Brandis announced today.

The Discovering Anzacs website, developed by the National Archives of Australia, goes live today and Archives New Zealand will make their World War I records available on the site from April 2014.

“Our nations have so much in common, including the contribution of our World War I service men and women,” says Mr Tremain.

“This shared collaboration will help our citizens understand more about those who served and the challenges they faced. This will be an innovative and user-friendly website which can only enhance the strong and proud tradition we share.”

“We welcome this opportunity to work with New Zealand to provide a deeper view of our strong Anzac tradition and pay tribute to the Anzacs as we commemorate the centenary of World War I,” says Senator Brandis.

“Anzac history is an aspect of our culture that has special significance and the new website will enhance our understanding of the individuals involved, their communities and the era, revealing more of the heritage of both nations.”

As well as providing access to digitised Australian and New Zealand service records from World War I, the website will contain other records including files on internment, munitions workers, and the South African War.

The project complements the centenary programme to commemorate the First World War, including the opening of a National War Memorial Park in Wellington, and events that can be found at the WW100 website, ww1000.govt.nz

For more information about the Anzac project and how to get involved, visit http://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au