The Australian Information Service (AIS) was one of a series of federal government organisations created to promote the image of Australia, in existence between 1940 and 1996. First created in 1940, the Australian News and Information Bureau (ANIB) kept its name but expanded its functions when it was moved into the Department of the Interior in 1950. It was renamed in February 1973 to the Australian Information Service, under which name it created a vast collection of photographs now held in the National Archives of Australia. It was again renamed in 1986, to Promotion Australia, a year later becoming the Australian Overseas Information Service (AOIS). In 1994 the agency became a branch of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), renamed the International Public Affairs Branch, before being disbanded in 1996. History and functions The Department of Information (DOI) was created in September 1939 under the leadership of John Treloar, responsible for both censorship and disseminating government propaganda during World War II. It was broken up in 1950. The Australian News and Information Bureau (ANIB) was created in 1940 within the DOI on the suggestion of Keith Murdoch, then Director-General of Information, but by the time it was implemented, he had resigned and the Minister for Information, Harry Foll, took charge. 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. A London office was opened in 1944 and one in San Francisco in 1945, as ANIB developed an "overseas publicity" role. With the breaking up of the DOI in 1950, ANIB was transferred to the Department of the Interior, and expanded its functions to take on much of DOI's work, also taking on many of its staff members. At this time it split into separate Home and Overseas Organisations. The ANIB took on the role of attracting migrants to Australia after the war, painting an attractive image of a country scarcely touched by war and with plenty of space and opportunity. During the Cold War, the bureau's overseas arm became more political hue, pushing the notion that the "Australian way of life" was much better than Communism. The Australian National Film Board, based in Sydney (also referred to as the Film Division), created in order oversee coordination of government and commercial filmmaking, and to engage film production