Anzac Portal refresh
In 1942 Tom Kirkham, a teenage merchant seaman, was rescued from the ocean after German U-boat 160 torpedoed his ship off the coast of America. Soon after, he was enjoying the sights of New York and an Anzac Day dinner at the world-famous Waldorf Hotel.
Personal accounts such as Mr Kirkham’s, along with other historical stories and imagery, can be found on the Department’s refreshed Anzac Portal website.
The Anzac Portal tells the stories of Australians who have served in wars, conflicts and military operations. Through sharing stories about the service and sacrifice of Australian service men and women and their families, the website aims to help people of all generations learn about, commemorate and respect our military history.
The new version of the website is more accessible. Digital versions of the Department's high quality commemorative and school publications are readily available to everyone, and we've focused on supporting people who use assistive technologies to access digital content.
Much of our content is linked to the National Curriculum to better support teachers and students across primary and secondary schools, while bringing engaging stories to a broader audience.
You might notice that new content on the First World War has strong links to war service records in the National Archives of Australia and objects in the Australian War Memorial. This will help engage young people and teach them about the value of historical sources, while bringing our history and artefacts together to share a unique and engaging story.
We’ve tagged new web pages with broad search topics to help you find related content more easily. They also include a glossary of technical terms, clear links to related content, and recommendations about articles, books and other sites you might find interesting.
Most importantly, we welcome feedback from you, our website visitors and the veteran community. At the bottom of every page, we invite you to tell us if you found the page helpful. You can also submit suggestions anonymously. Most of the feedback on our content has been very positive — and it has helped us to make many improvements.
Gathering and sharing these important historical stories will continue into the future.