'Broken bodies, battered minds' and what's left from women facing war

These are the women who spent time working helping "broken bodies and battered minds" to rebuild fine motor skills and confidence while they waited to return home.

There are the prisoners and they are the women who became Australian when they married a soldier and helped to shape this nation.

Their stories will have their own spotlight in a new film on Australian service women from Ballarat's Wind and Sky Productions.

For Red Cross archivist Gillian Anderson, these are important stories to tell.

When Ms Anderson carefully assembles the uniform for Maureen White, she likes to contemplate on the strong character of the woman who wore the outfit.

Her collection also features a hand-sewn leather wallet a lot of field force officers would have used to keep their paper. This is one Maureen had sewn, helping Australian soldiers with occupational therapy in hospital in Japan.

These are the sorts of stories Ms Anderson sees and is "busting to tell" in her role as Red Cross archivist.

"Maureen White was one of the many Australian Red Cross women who saw something needed and went and did it," Ms Anderson said.

"Immediately after the war these women were looking after broken bodies and battered minds. It's important to highlight these women and their stories.

"We at the Red Cross like to say we're people helping people to help themselves. This could include re-skilling soldiers to be self-sufficient and re-fitting them back into society.

"...These women are so impressive and inspiring because we can do it - and we have been doing it for a long time."

Wind and Sky Productions will predominantly focus on the efforts of Australian service women through east and southeast Asia after WWII, from 1945 to 1955. This period includes the Korean War.

Wind and Sky producer Lucinda Horrocks said this was a decade in time that did not receive much attention - it was bookended by the end of WWII and the start of the Vietnam War. Ms Horrocks wants to explore "what happens when weapons stop firing".

"This was just before the women's liberation movement and women were being put back in their box. At the same time the military was realising women were important in war...they were slow in realising the capacity of women," Ms Horrocks said.

"[After war], women were there helping everyone in their own way in repatriation and assisting the democratisation of Japan, which had not only had atomic bombs dropped around but was trying to find a new way to rebuild.

"The Korean war started in 1950 and was very impactful but not often spoken about."

Fellow Wind and Sky producer Jary Nemo said this was a time when borders were changing and shifting globally and many people did not realise the full extent of the political upheaval.

Mr Nemo said this was a big coming-of-age moment for Australia in understanding it was "not in Europe anymore".

"The individual stories on how people lived at the time are important," Mr Nemo said. "This helps to understand people's motivations and why they were making the decisions they did."

Wind and Sky will launch the project on a $140,000 federal government grant from the Saluting their Service commemorative program.

The project, Indispensible, has support from the Returned and Services League Victorian returned nurses sub-branch, Red Cross Australia archives and volunteer historians.

Deakin University PhD candidate Anna Wilkinson said as a historian, this project was helping to bring history off the pages. Ms Wilkinson's focus is on war brides, which was all part of Wind and Sky's bigger picture.

She said there many Australian service women in this period went to multiple sites of often violent conflict through Japan, Malaya and Vietnam.

"As Australian it's amazing how little we know or understand the conflict based in the Asian region in WWI and WWII," Ms Wilkinson said. "I am learning a lot about women like Maureen White and what this production is doing is bringing these stories to life."

Ballarat MP and federal minister Catherine King met with the team behind the project at Ballarat New Cemetery on Friday, June 26.

"Often women's stories aren't told throughout history and women have played a significant role in Australia right through to today," Ms King said. "This innovative project makes their stories accessible and ensures they are remembered for decades to come."