diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..09130b35b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+[submodule "generic_tracers"]
+	path = src/access/generic_tracers
+	url = https://github.com/ACCESS-NRI/GFDL-generic-tracers.git
diff --git a/src/access/README b/src/access/README
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index 000000000..837f11769
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/access/README
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+# ACCESS-specific code
+
+This directory includes code that is specific to ACCESS-models.
+
+[ACCESS-specific generic tracers](https://github.com/ACCESS-NRI/GFDL-generic-tracers) are included as a git submodule. To retrieve the code for the submodule run:
+
+```bash
+git submodule update --init --recursive
+```
diff --git a/src/access/generic_tracers b/src/access/generic_tracers
new file mode 160000
index 000000000..6dcadbbae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/access/generic_tracers
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit 6dcadbbaef22c8c7b20f7ed5cf75df37dbade3b8