National Archives of Australia: Digitising WW 2 Service Records

[Don Clark]

National Archives of Australia had, for some years (and after access assessment), offered digitised Service files on request (in more recent years, for a fee).

From 2019, the NAA has been funded to digitise WW 2 personnel service records: for the RAAF, that means the Officer (A9300) and NCO/OR (A9301) record of service files.
The program was expected to be complete in 2023.
Delayed by COVID, it continues and progress to date across the Services is given here:
https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/defence-and-war-service-records/digitising-world-war-ii-service-records

So there is a fair body of RAAF A9300 and A9301 record of service files to go.
As the program progresses, some Open files may therefor not be immediately available to view.
NAA Canberra Research Centre is open for visit but bear in mind that the available WW 2 RAAF files are held not in the Research Centre but in an off-site repository.
On request to retrieve a file, assuming it is available, it may take 1 to 5 days to reach the Research Centre.
Request to review any Not Yet Examined file for possible Open status may take 90 days.

[Don Clark]

As a result of COVID and other NAA developments, the Record Search request system has changed, such that it is no longer possible to visit, search, print, lodge request, and get file retrieval same day at the Canberra NAA Rsearch Centre. Indeed, while there is one working NAA Record Search terminal on site, it is not connected to a printer (so on-site lodgement is impossible).

The NAA now requires that all file requests be lodged remotely, via the Advance Request page.
A minimum of 5 (five) days notice is required, to view retrieved files by a pre-booked visit.
Visitors are limited to viewing 5 (five) files in any one visit.
In addition, while a file may be shown as Open in Record Search, the file may in fact be unavailable - sent elsewhere for digitising.
That is only checked when your remote request is lodged - if a not available advice is given, you have to start again at a later date.

And Request to review any Not Yet Examined file for possible Open status will take 90 working days: that is about 4 months.

NAA refs
https://www.naa.gov.au/help-your-research/research-centres#before-you-visit
https://www.naa.gov.au/help-your-research/ask-us-about-collection
https://reftracker.naa.gov.au/reft100.aspx?pmi=6795937073212184427