I thought my readers with a strong interest in Australia’s World War I leader Sir John Monash would be interested to know about this project to make his papers accessible online.

His papers were donated to the National Library of Australia in 1980 by his three grandchildren, David and J.C.M. Bennett and Elizabeth Durré.

It is a vast collection occupying nearly 300 boxes, equating to approximately 60 shelf metres of National Library storage space. 

Monash’s life was extraordinary.

He lived through an age of enormous change, he was a military and business leader, a devoted family man and the son of immigrants—and the digitisation of his papers opens new opportunities for research into his life and times.

For the past 11 months, the Library has been undertaking a significant digitisation project to make these papers—containing archival material created or collected by Monash throughout his life —freely available to all Australians through Trove.

I am sure this news will be of interest to many readers who hold Monash in high esteem for his military leadership in World War I.