The collecting of militaria / military collectables in Australia is typically associated with First and Second World War memorabilia, but the times are changing.
There is increasing respect and recognition of Australian military deployments in peace keeping and war fighting roles from Vietnam to Sinai, Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan and numerous others.
With this rising interest in more recent deployments, comes increasing interest in collecting Australian militaria relating to these deployments.
Today’s Diggers are somewhat restricted on what they can bring back unlike some WW1 and WW2 Diggers bringing back bayonets, helmets, Lugers and heaven knows what else as souvenirs.
With this in mind most militaria of these periods is in the form of uniforms, webbing, field kit, brassards, challenge coins etc.
For the discerning collector of Australian militaria / military collectables there is plenty of recent stuff around at the moment, but it will become rare and more expensive with each year that passes.
A great example would be Vietnam War era greens, packs and field kit that was once cheap and ubiquitous disposal store stock, but now easily classifies as militaria in both its scarcer availability and higher price.
A lot of smart collectors of Australian military history are therefore getting in early to make sure that choice items from recent deployments are represented in their collections before they become scarce.