Horrors of war detailed in archive project

For several years, Herbert Bourne's family were suspicious about the returned digger's "dual personality" problem.

What they didn't know was that the horrors of World War I didn't end for the Gallipoli stretcher bearer when he eventually came home in 1917.

In his final years, Herbert was plagued with numerous medical problems, from a heart condition and diabetes to varicose veins.

Two years after he was divorced, Herbert's leg was amputated because an ulcer became gangrenous.

When he eventually died in a nursing home, Herbert's son Donald wrote to the repatriation department to seek assurances his father's extreme temper wasn't an inherent personality trait but a result of the war.

He didn't get those answers.

But they've finally come three decades later with the release of documents under a $3.4 million digitisation project by the National Archives of Australia.

To mark the centenary of World War I, 5000 records of diggers - mostly those who left Australia from Albany in November 1914 - have been made public for the first time.

The online resource details the medical care, welfare services and pensions provided by the now-veterans affairs department to returned soldiers - making it easier for families to seek answers.

"These records really show the ongoing impact of the war on individuals, their families and the nation as a whole," the archives' director-general David Fricker said in a statement on Thursday.