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
Made by: Farmer's (Farmer & Company, Sydney department store), lithographed in Sydney
Region: Oceania
Country: Australia
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: Corporation
Regime: Fisher Government
Leader: Andrew Fisher
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Recruit
Themes: War and the military, Empire and colonialism
Event: World War I
Techniques: Testimonial Glittering generalities
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: Library of Congress, 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.