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The Australian Information Service was one of a series of federal government organisations created to promote the image of Australia. The agency existed from 1973 to 1986.
The Department of Information was created in 1947 to promote the Australian lifestyle and Australian events overseas, particularly to intending post-war migrants
In 1950 the agency was renamed the Australian News and Information Bureau. In 1973, under the Whitlam Government, it was again renamed as the Australian Information Service.
The Department of Information was established to ‘undertake the large publicity campaign necessary to support Australia’s war effort’. This campaign was centred principally on increasing and sustaining the people’s faith in the cause for which they were fighting, and sought to gain support for the government’s security and fundraising activities and distribute ‘sound’ facts on the war and its progress.
The activities of the Department were extensive and various, and when, in 1981, two packets of ‘historical’ photographs of a rural Victorian town were returned to Australia by the New York office of the Australian Information Service, a small example of those activities came to light.
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