Die Serie enthält Namen und Fotos von Personen in australischen Internierungslagern. The photograph album is a linen and leather bound volume containing ruled alphabetical thumb index pages (not used) and 654 numbered pages, of which all but the last ten contain photographs of individual internees, mounted in three rows of three. The internees were photographed side by side in small groups, facing the camera, from the elbows up, after which the photograph was cut into 6x8cm square sections showing one internee each. Included in most photograph sections is a printed number either held by or fastened to the internee, while in the remaining cases the number has been inscribed on the photograph. The photographs are mounted in numerical order. Over 300 missing individual photographs are represented by pencilled numbers, others by a reference to a double exposure on another page. Photographs 2858 and 3824 have been ruined by light and movement, internee no. 5368 is photographed in bed, and pages 484, 485 and 488 show bound internees being held by guards. The index comprises 103 type-written folios stapled together. The title page has Register of Personal Photographs. Part I. Index followed by notes on arrangement. Entries are in three columns headed Number, Surname (surnames are in upper case letters), Christian-name (lower case). Arrangement is by initial letter of surname, then by photograph number, with some entries out of numerical order at the end of each letter. The second and later folios for each letter are numbered 2, 3 etc. The names are overwhelmingly German, with a large number of Slavonic names. It is believed that the photographs of this series were taken by soldiers of the 2 Military District, Commonwealth Military Forces as part of the administration of the Liverpool Camp, NSW for internees during World War I. It is unknown what the initial purpose of the photographs was, it has been suggested that the photographs were taken so that port authorities could be alerted in the event of a camp break-out. This may be possible, however, the extant photograph albums suggest that the photograph albums were collated much later by a central office. It may be possible that the album in CRS D3597 was created using the original photographs, and duplicates for the other albums were made from the glass plate negatives. It appears that between the time the original photographs were made and the time the photograph albums were created, several of the glass plate negatives were broken, which accounts for the missing photographs in the albums (CRS P1, CRS K565, SP421/4), which frequently occur in runs of three photographs (the number of photographs which fitted onto a glass plate negative). After the Liverpool Camp was closed in 1919, the records of the camp were transferred to the Chief of General Staff, Army Headquarters, Melbourne (see file A367 item C18000 PT 1). It is believed that the photographs, or their negatives, were later transferred to the Investigation Branch of the Attorney Generals Department (CA 747), to assist them in the administration of the Immigration Act 1920 (although it is not clear when the records were transferred). It is believed that the photograph albums were collated by the Investigation Branch at this point and sent to the Collectors of Customs in each State.
