Mr Hart As in America most of Australia's historical militaria is in private hands or in small army, navy & air force museums. The same problems of lack of knowledge on how to preserve items exists. The Australian War Memorial, which holds the largest public collection of militaria in Australia has a world class conservation section with a staff of 14 trained conservators working in 5 disciplines. But even so, with the restricted funding we receive, our outreach programs are limited. We have prepared a set of leaflets on how to care for your memorabilia which have been published in a newspaper circulated by the Australian Department of Veterans Affairs, run a yearly week long course on preventative conservation for army curators and spend up to 10% of our time answering queries from the public. If we can be of assistance from this distance please feel free to contact us. Wendy Dodd Textiles Conservator Australian War Memorial c/- [log in to unmask]