The Women’s Australian Auxiliary Air Force, the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Force and the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) were formed during the Second World War.
Initially, women were only allowed to work in traditional female roles such as clerks, typists, cooks and drivers. But by war’s end, these roles expanded to include working in signals, intelligence and chemical warfare units and operating radars, searchlights and anti-aircraft guns.
And women began to specialise in non-traditional roles. For example, one woman served as an anthropologist, one was a linguist and another was a veterinary surgeon. There were also roles for women as guards for Italian female internees in hospitals, and AWAS women gave administrative assistance to courts and assisted in psychiatric hospitals.
According to the government of the day, their service "released men from certain military duties for employment in fighting units."
By the end of the war, over 20,000 women were serving in the AWAS including almost 700 officers. The Service was disbanded in June 1947 and the Women’s Royal Australian Army Corps was formed in 1951.
The Army Museum in Bandiana on the NSW-Victoria border has a collection of AWAS memorabilia including uniforms, photographs and vignettes of women who served.
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