This section provides information on long service awards made to Australians since 1975. Before the introduction of the Australian system of honours and awards Australian personnel received Imperial long service awards.
Initially the National Medal was introduced within the Australian system to replace all existing Imperial long service and good conduct medals, not only for the ADF but for members of other uniformed services such as police and ambulance personnel as well. In 1982 the National Medal was replaced for ADF personnel by a group of awards to uniquely recognise ADF service:
The Committee of Inquiry into Defence Related Awards (CIDA) of 1994 noted some anomalies arising from having separate awards for particular categories of service and recommended that a single long service award be introduced for all members of the ADF. In 1998 a new long service award, the Defence Long Service Medal (DLSM) was introduced. Members who qualified for the earlier Defence Force Service Awards (DFSA) were given the option of continuing to accumulate service towards clasps to those awards or replacing them with the DLSM. The latter option allowed members with a mix of service in the various categories who may not have received a medal or clasps to reflect that service to have their total service recognised.
The order of wearing the long service medals is contained in the order of wear listing in this site.
Images are shown on this site with the obverse (front) shown with the ribbon attached. The reverse (back) is shown without the ribbon. The reason for this is to avoid any confusion with the correct display of the ribbon.
Medals included in this section are:
You can search for an award name or ribbon by selecting the following: