From time to time, foreign governments confer honours or awards on Australians. These honours and awards may be in recognition for gallantry in operations, bravery in civil actions or for meritorious or outstanding service.
To ensure that Australia maintains the integrity and quality of its system and to avoid a proliferation of awards, policies have been developed for the acceptance and wearing of foreign awards.
The official guidelines issued by the Governor-General on the acceptance and wearing of foreign awards may be viewed or downloaded here.
Personnel enlisting in the Australian Defence Force from other nations who wish to wear medals they have been awarded during that prior service must apply for approval to do so. Only those awards which have an equivalent award in the Australian system will be approved for wear on uniform.
Requests for clarification, or further information should be directed to DH&A using the contacts list in the Contacts section.
Web page last updated 19 October, 2011