---
title: Australia's imperishable record. Australians! The empire needs you (Farmer's, Sydney)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/australias-imperishable-record-1915/
description: A Union Jack drapes the top and left of a black panel that quotes a named senior officer, General Sir Ian Hamilton, on the Australian and New Zealand…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Australia's imperishable record. Australians! The empire needs you (Farmer's, Sydney)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/australias-imperishable-record-1915.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/australias-imperishable-record-1915.jpg)

# Australia's imperishable record. Australians! The empire needs you (Farmer's, Sydney)

A Union Jack drapes the top and left of a black panel that quotes a named senior officer, General Sir Ian Hamilton, on the Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli, then closes with the direct ask 'Australians! The empire needs you'. The named commander's praise carries the persuasion (testimonial), and the quoted terms, 'finest traditions of our race', 'imperishable record of military virtue', are honour words with no specific service or terms attached.

- **Date:** 1915
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** Farmer's (Farmer & Company, Sydney department store), lithographed in Sydney
- **Region:** [Oceania](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=oceania)
- **Country:** [Australia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=australia)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [Corporation](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=corporation)
- **Regime:** [Fisher Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=fisher-government)
- **Leader:** [Andrew Fisher](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=andrew-fisher)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Recruit](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=recruit)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Empire and colonialism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=empire-colonialism)
- **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i)
- **Techniques:** [Testimonial](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/testimonial/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2004675099/), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published 1915, before 1931; AWM: copyright expired) Farmer's, Sydney, publisher. 1915. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-12166; see also Australian War Memorial C96397. Rights: Library of Congress states no known restrictions on publication; the Australian War Memorial marks its copy 'Copyright expired - public domain'.

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
AUSTRALIA'S
IMPERISHABLE
RECORD

"Speaking out of a full heart, may I be permitted to say how gloriously the Australian and New Zealand contingent have upheld the finest traditions of our race during this struggle still in progress.
"At first with audacity and dash, since then with sleepless valour and untiring resource, they have already created for their countries an imperishable record of military virtue."

General Sir IAN HAMILTON
TENEDOS, MAY 1st 1915.

AUSTRALIANS!
THE EMPIRE NEEDS YOU

PUBLISHED BY FARMER'S, SYDNEY. [lower left]
[lithographer's credit, lower right, too small to read at this resolution]
```

The photographed copy is bordered by Kodak colour and gray-scale calibration strips added for archival photography, not part of the original poster.

[← Berliner Tageblatt, evening edition, 22 September 1914: "Der Brand der Kathedrale von Reims"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/berliner-tageblatt-reims-cathedral-1914/) [Banania "y'a bon" (advertising poster, Paris, 1915) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/banania-y-a-bon-poster-1915/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bronze sestertius of Gaius (Caligula), reverse S P Q R P P OB CIVES SERVATOS in an oak wreath](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-caligula-ob-cives-servatos-0037/) (0037 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [Seljuq gold dinar of Sanjar, dated 493 AH, with the Abbasid caliph named on one face](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/seljuq-gold-dinar-sanjar-caliph-name-1099/) (1099 · Testimonial)
- [Bande Mataram (Paris), memorial page to Madan Lal Dhingra, 17 August 1909](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bande-mataram-paris-dhingra-memorial-1909/) (Aug 17, 1909 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [Ireland & Poland (recruiting appeal quoting the Rev. William P. Burke)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ireland-and-poland-1915/) (1915 · Fear appeal, Testimonial)
- [Mr. John Dillon, M.P., on recruiting in Ireland. Join an Irish regiment to-day](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/john-dillon-on-recruiting-in-ireland-1915/) (1915 · Testimonial, Semantic hijacking)
- [Wer Kriegsanleihe zeichnet, macht mir die schönste Geburtstagsgabe! (Whoever Subscribes to the War Loan Gives Me the Finest Birthday Present!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hindenburg-geburtstagsgabe-1917/) (1917 · Testimonial)
- [Reinforcements. Our scrap of paper, honor it. Vote Yes. Referendum (Australia, 1917)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/reinforcements-referendum-vote-yes-1917/) (1917 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [The Black Stork (cinema advertisement)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/black-stork-1917/) (Nov 1917 · Glittering generalities, Transfer, Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Advertises a film arguing that disabled newborns should be left to die, and calls them "defective infants".