Australian Information Service

The Department of Information (DOI) was created in September 1939 under the leadership of J. L. Treloar, responsible for both censorship and disseminating government propaganda during World War II.

ANIB was based in New York City, as its main goal was to inform the United States of Australia's war effort, thereby nurturing and building the relationship between the two countries.

[2] 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, showing a small example of the activities of the agency.

His 88 photographs now make up the Drouin Collection and focus on the town's people as a community and also on a more personal level, somewhat idealised and showing their sacrifices and contributions to the war effort.

Fitzpatrick’s assignment was part of an extensive publicity campaign to convince our allies, particularly the Americans, that we were "shouldering our full share of the burdens of war".

[9] An article titled "Small town at war", written by David Stevens, was published in the South West Pacific Annual in December 1944, including 27 of Fitzpatrick's photographs.