A file exists in NAA regarding this item, unfortunately not digitized. It is NAA: B1535; 716/1/319, Badges - Reservists and Efficient Service Militia Forces.
The numbers are in the batch series issued to New South Wales, 3101-13100.
Manufacturer was Wallace Bishop and Son, George St Brisbane QLD, Contract No 943 for 478 Pounds, notified in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, Issue No 57 dated 31 August 1939.
The contract was for 27,000 badges according to Graham Donley in his Australian Army Reserve Force and Militia Efficiency Badges 1939, an undated self-published booklet.
I doubt they were issued in April 1939, contracts weren't approved until August and notification didn't appear in Military Board Instructions (MBI) until A.44 dated 31 August 1939 (attached).
The numbers to be issued appearing in MBI A.44 don't add up but according to Donley these are in error and include the Australian Army Reserve Force badge manufactured and issued at the same time.
The inclusion of the item in Priced Vocabulary of Military Clothing and Necessaries 1940 was notified in amendments published with Australian Army Order 294/1940, dated 31 November 1940, badge Efficient Service, Gilding metal and enamel, 5 pence.
Keith
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