Walter Henry Farrell, a driver with the 2nd Divisional Signals Company, with the unit mascot, a rooster named ‘Jack’ or ‘Jackie’. They are in France in 1917. Members of the unit had bought Jack in Egypt in 1916 when he was still a chick. They found him a better guard than a dog, as he attacked any stranger who entered the unit lines. 

‘Cinders’ was the resident cat aboard the HMS Ladybird and is being fed here by L.W. Greysmark in 1940. 

‘Ceceila’, a small flying squirrel, was the mascot of the 2/2nd Infantry Battalion in 1944 in Wondecla, Far North Queensland. 

Private H.P. Barton, a guard of No. 15 Prisoner Of War Camp, holds the camp’s pet kookaburra in Yanco, NSW.

A group of young wartime engineers cuddle a border collie puppy in Clifton Garens in 1942, Sydney, NSW.

A cat named ‘Aircrew’ in 1943. Aircrew was adopted by members of the Royal Australian Air Force Flying Training School in Cressy, Vic. 

Turtle, ‘Tim’, pictured here with Captain D. Michelson, was a mascot of the 2/2 Battalion. 

This Alsatian dog was a mascot that accompanied these men in Sydney who are about to join WWII overseas in 1940. 

‘Septimus’ was a baby possum that was found and reared by Trooper V. Groves (pictured), and became the mascot of Squadron 2/9 Armoured Regiment. Here he is with V. Groves in Wondcla in Queensland, 1945. 

‘Hughie’ the pig was only a few days old when it was acquired by his unit. Here, in 1942, he is 10 months old and has just survived a Japanese air raid.  

‘Shrapnel’, the puppy, and ‘Salvo’, the cat, don’t get on, but they are stuck together in wartime aboard the HMAS Sydney in 1940. 

‘Josie’ the wallaby is being held by Sister Beryl Chandler of Longreach, Qld, at the Medical Receiving Station Royal Australian Air Force with a patient, an officer of the Royal Australian Navy.

Lieutenant G.A. Greenwood and Sergeant B. Agnew, two members of No. 31 Squadron RAAF, hold the squadron mascots, a joey and a dog, in Coomalie Creek, NT, 1943. 

An unidentified seaman with three ship’s pets aboard the light cruiser HMAS Melbourne in 1916.

The feline mascot of the light cruiser HMAS Encounter peering from the muzzle of a six-inch gun barrel.

Squadron Leader G.W. Savage of No. 31 Squadron RAAF, stands in front of a Bristol Beaufighter aircraft holding two of the squadron mascots, a joey and a dog, in Coomalie Creek in the Northern Territory in 1943. 

In 1945, a member of the B Corps of Signals in Papua New Guinea, travels with his pet dog and crates of carrier pigeons. 

The kangaroo mascot of the Siege Brigade, 36th Heavy Artillery Brigade of a Royal Australian Artillery, wears a cut down service dress jacket with the Brigade badge on the collar. The kangaroo was presented to the West Australian Section of the Siege Brigade and was taken to England and France.