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This page contains information on Medals, Awards
and other information on Service matters. select the topic below for
further information.
Service Records
Copies of your Service and Medical records are available. Proof of
identity or Next-of-Kin relationship is required and all requests
require a signature. Due to privacy restrictions, specicfi regulations
apply to the distribution of confidential personnel records.
Some fees may be involved; check with the
contacts below.
Service Records
Personnel Records RAN
Queanbeyan Annex 2,
Department of Defence Canberra ACT 2600
Phone: +61 2 6266 5962
Fax: +61 2 6266 5851
Health/Medical
Records
Australian Defence Force Health Records - Army (ADFHR-A)
GPO Box 1932
MELBOURNE VIC 3001
For copies of your or your ancestor’s service records go to the
Defence site.
Historical service records
WWI and WW2
National Archives of Australia
Phone: 1300 886 881
E-mail: ww1prs@naa.gov.au
http://www.naa.gov.au
Telephone Number: (03) 9282 4911
Facsimile Number: (03) 9282 5978
RAN Discharge Certificate
There are those among you who don’t have one or
need to update your discharge Certificate. Certificates given today are worthy
of framing and are a big improvement on the "Certificate" that most of us
received, a piece of paper with our enlistment details. As many of you have
received medals since discharging you should apply for an updated Certificate
that lists your Awards. The address for details is available at the Navy website
http://www.navy.gov.au/contact/records.html
Certificates of Appreciation
Certificates of
Appreciation are a way of expressing the nation’s thanks to those who have made
a contribution towards Australia’s efforts in war, conflicts and peace
operations. The contributions can be as a civilian or as a member of the armed
forces. For the Second World War, the contribution may have been in Australia or
overseas. For all other conflicts the contribution must have been given overseas
in the country in which the conflict occurred.
Certificates are available for service in:
Second World War, for service in the Australian armed forces or on the home
front
British Commonwealth Occupation Force (Japan)
Korean War
Malayan Emergency
Indonesian Confrontation
Vietnam War
Gulf War
Iraq War
Peace Operations
For details and an
application form go to the
DVA website.
Do you have all of YOUR Medals?
Many Members that have left the Services have become entitled to
Medals since their discharge. It is worth checking your eligibility,
especially for the medals listed below:
Australian Defence Medal
The
Australian Defence Medal seeks to recognise the service of members of the Australian Defence
Force, past and present, who have made a commitment to our nation's security.
Accordingly, the Australian
Defence Medal will be awarded to Regular and Reserve Force members who have
completed their initial enlistment period or four years service, whichever was
the lesser, since World War II with service backdated from 3 September, 1945.
Eligibility for the medal extends to those
personnel who:
- die in service;
- have been discharged medically unfit due to
a compensable impairment, thus rendering them unable to serve the required
four years; or
- were discharged due to some Defence
workplace and enlistment policies of the time (as determined by the Chief of
the Defence Force), and were unable to serve the required four years.
Information on the medals, including basic eligibility requirements and
application procedure are provided in the links below.
 Australian
Service Medal (ASM) - With Clasp Special Ops
The Australian Service Medal (ASM) with Clasp SPECIAL OPS
was awarded to naval personnel who had been aboard submarines, on trips as specified
by CDF.
It has come to our attention that there are still a number of ex-submariners from
the RAN who haven't applied for their ASM with Clasp SPECIAL OPS. As a consequence,
their Medals remain undelivered. This to me is a great shame and we should do all
we can to locate as many of these guys as possible. If your name appears on the
unclaimed
list, please send a short letter stating your name, service no. and current postal
address to that shown on the enclosure. Could you all have a good long look at the
list, and if you know of the whereabouts of any of them, please contact that person and give them the Medals
Section address.
 The Pingat Jasa Malaysia
for service
in Malaysia with the Commonwealth Far East Strategic Reserve
In
January 2005 the Government of Malaysia made an
offer to confer a special medal of
service to eligible current and former Australian
Servicemen and women in appreciation of their service in Malaysia with
the Commonwealth Far East Strategic Reserve from Independence to the end
of Confrontation over the period 31 August 1957 to 31 December 1966. The
Australian Government has developed the eligibility provisions to accord
with the criteria for the medal as set out by the Malaysian Government.
Details at the
Defence
Personnel portal
Replacement service awards will
only be issued to the entitled member or ex-serving member who earned the
awards. The relatives of deceased members cannot receive replacement awards.
Service awards can only be
re-issued when the originals are lost, stolen or damaged. Replacements will not
be issued if the awards have been sold or given away. Medals are re-issued when
two months has elapsed after the date of loss in order to allow adequate time
for recovery.
The applicant is required to
certify that no compensation has been received for the loss, and that no
compensation will be claimed. A replacement award may be issued once only at
public expense. Any subsequent claims will be considered on their merits.
The application for replacement
awards is accompanied by a Statutory Declaration detailing how, when and where
the loss occurred.
Click here for an application form.
Please note: If you want to
replace the medals of a deceased member, you can obtain a list of their
entitlements by applying to the Directorate of Honours and Awards. This will
enable you to purchase replica awards from commercial military memorabilia
outlets.
Government to
replace medals lost in natural disasters
Parliamentary Secretary for Defence, Senator the Hon David Feeney, today
announced that the Government will relax the policy on replacement of Australian
Defence Force (ADF) medals so that medals lost during the Queensland and
Victorian floods, the impact of Cyclone Yasi and the fires in Western Australia
can be replaced.
“Government policy for many years has been medals can only be issued to the ADF
member who earned them,” Senator Feeney said.
“This usually means that medals cannot be replaced if they are lost or destroyed
after the ADF member has died.”
Where medals are lost in natural disasters, however, this policy may be relaxed.
This was done following the Victorian bushfires in 2009.
“While the Government is committed to maintaining the integrity of our system of
military honours and awards, there are circumstances in which the Australian
community rightly expects us to show greater flexibility in implementing the
existing policy. I believe this unprecedented series of natural disasters is one
of those circumstances,” Senator Feeney said.
“I have therefore decided that ADF medals may be reissued to the next of kin or
other appropriate relative of deceased ADF members, if the medals have been lost
or destroyed in the current natural disasters. Family members who have, in the
course of these natural disasters, lost the medals of loved ones, may now make
application for replacements.
“Unfortunately, however, only medals dating back to the First World War can be
replaced. Medals for conflicts prior to this war are no longer in production.”
Applicants should use the application form and statutory declaration located on
the Defence Honours and Awards website at: www.defence.gov.au/medals
Completed applications should be submitted to: Directorate of Honours and Awards
Department of Defence, PO Box 7952, Canberra BC, ACT 2610. Enquiries may also be
directed to Defence Honours and Awards toll free on 1800 111 321.
Lost Medals
The Lost Medals web site, operated by LtCol Glyn Llanwarne, is dedicated to
returning medals to a veteran's nearest kin. Since 2000 he has been acquiring,
researching and then returning lost medals to veterans or their families. He
started out purchasing medals however; now he is supported through donations of
'found' medals and no longer purchases them. He now uses all of his resources
for research and trying to locate families, free of any charge or fee.
If you are searching for lost medals I recommend
this site.
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Honours
and Awards Policy and Entitlements Updates
Check here for updates and amendments to various honours & awards policies and
entitlements are
on the
Defence Honours &
Awards website
Official government site for information on the Australian honours system.
Nomination forms for Australian honours can be found on the Australian
government's
It's An Honour
website.
Australian
and Imperial Military Medals
A brief summary of the various campaign and service medals and clasps which have
been awarded to Australian Defence Force personnel since Federation can be found
on the Defence Department website
Honours
& Awards page. Medals shown have been awarded or approved under the Imperial Honours System and the Australian Honours System.
The information provided is very general and is intended as a guideline only. The
regulations governing each individual medal should be consulted for more detailed
information concerning eligibility. For those persons who feel that they may have
an entitlement, you are required to complete the appropriate application
form. Once completed, the form should be returned to the relevant Medals
Section. Due to the number of enquiries being received,
assessments cannot be done over the telephone.
The medals shown in the summary are not necessarily shown in the correct Order of
Precedence. The order of wearing some medals may vary according to the date on which
a person qualified for the medal.
The site shows the relevant medals for:
* The Boer War
* World War I
* World War II
* 1945-1975
* Since 1975
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