Today we are looking at a pair of Australian Army notebooks. These are two variations of the same item, with the left last updated in 1967, whilst that on the right dates to thirty years later and 1996. In the thirty years between the two printings, the nomenclature on the cover has changed from ‘Australian Military Forces’ to ‘Department of Defence’ but otherwise there is little difference between them:

The back cover of the notebooks provides some warnings about security and not gossiping about military matters that could give away information to the enemy:

What is particularly nice about these notebooks is that they have both been used and have notes inside them. The earlier of the two has hand written notes on some training and who is to deliver it:

The later notebook has information on the F88 rifle’s characteristics:

It is always much more interesting to have these items used rather than blank, and although the notes are only about training matters, they are interesting nonetheless. These little bits of paperwork are great for filling out pockets and pouches with the correct items of small kit and as exciting as big pieces of webbing and uniform are, it is the small personal items like these that I really like adding to a collection to really fill out the kit.