Rare colour footage of Australian commandos has been uncovered by the ABC.

Used during an episode of The Australian Story, the clips show the elite troops training in secret on Queensland’s Fraser Island.

“I thought it was a wonderful find and it ticks so many boxes: it’s well shot, the colour’s well preserved, it’s an evocative glimpse of the World War II era,” said Graham Shirley, the journalist who found the footage.

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“I thought it was superb. What really brings World War II to life is colour,” Mr Shirley said.

The soldiers were practising for attacks on the Japanese, the ABC reports.

The recordings were found at a training headquarters in Sydney by an ABC employee.

Veteran commandos alerted the journalist to the existence of the footage, as they remembered being filmed while training.

The cameraman was reportedly Dr Frank Tate, a medical student who had worked with Walt Disney.