diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 4ee347a4ebf..5921da6c1db 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 - Deprecated `WaitStrategy` and implementations in favour of classes with same names in `org.testcontainers.containers.strategy` ([\#600](https://github.com/testcontainers/testcontainers-java/pull/600))
 - Added `ContainerState` interface representing the state of a started container ([\#600](https://github.com/testcontainers/testcontainers-java/pull/600))
 - Added `WaitStrategyTarget` interface which is the target of the new `WaitStrategy` ([\#600](https://github.com/testcontainers/testcontainers-java/pull/600))
+- *Breaking:* Removed hard-coded `wnameless` Oracle database image name. Users should instead place a file on the classpath named `testcontainers.properties` containing `oracle.container.image=IMAGE`, where IMAGE is a suitable image name and tag/SHA hash. For information, the approach recommended by Oracle for creating an Oracle XE docker image is described [here](https://blogs.oracle.com/oraclewebcentersuite/implement-oracle-database-xe-as-docker-containers). 
 - Added `DockerHealthcheckWaitStrategy` that is based on Docker's built-in [healthcheck](https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/builder/#healthcheck) ([\#618](https://github.com/testcontainers/testcontainers-java/pull/618)).
 
 ## [1.6.0] - 2018-01-28
diff --git a/modules/jdbc-test/src/test/resources/testcontainers.properties b/modules/jdbc-test/src/test/resources/testcontainers.properties
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..19b5c4680e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/jdbc-test/src/test/resources/testcontainers.properties
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+oracle.container.image=wnameless/oracle-xe-11g@sha256:15ff9ef50b4f90613c9780b589c57d98a8a9d496decec854316d96396ec5c085
diff --git a/modules/oracle-xe/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/OracleContainer.java b/modules/oracle-xe/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/OracleContainer.java
index 41dce1693a7..3cb6d888ebd 100644
--- a/modules/oracle-xe/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/OracleContainer.java
+++ b/modules/oracle-xe/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/OracleContainer.java
@@ -8,13 +8,24 @@
 public class OracleContainer extends JdbcDatabaseContainer {
 
     public static final String NAME = "oracle";
-    public static final String IMAGE = TestcontainersConfiguration.getInstance()
-            .getProperties().getProperty("oracle.container.image","wnameless/oracle-xe-11g");
+
     private static final int ORACLE_PORT = 1521;
     private static final int APEX_HTTP_PORT = 8080;
 
+    private static String resolveImageName() {
+        String image = TestcontainersConfiguration.getInstance()
+            .getProperties().getProperty("oracle.container.image");
+
+        if (image == null) {
+            throw new IllegalStateException("An image to use for Oracle containers must be configured. " +
+                "To do this, please place a file on the classpath named `testcontainers.properties`, " +
+                "containing `oracle.container.image=IMAGE`, where IMAGE is a suitable image name and tag.");
+        }
+        return image;
+    }
+
     public OracleContainer() {
-        super(IMAGE + "@sha256:15ff9ef50b4f90613c9780b589c57d98a8a9d496decec854316d96396ec5c085");
+        super(resolveImageName());
     }
 
     public OracleContainer(String dockerImageName) {
diff --git a/modules/oracle-xe/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/OracleContainerProvider.java b/modules/oracle-xe/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/OracleContainerProvider.java
index 1aea9f7e443..4ce0fb2cdfb 100644
--- a/modules/oracle-xe/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/OracleContainerProvider.java
+++ b/modules/oracle-xe/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/OracleContainerProvider.java
@@ -11,6 +11,11 @@ public boolean supports(String databaseType) {
 
     @Override
     public JdbcDatabaseContainer newInstance(String tag) {
-        return new OracleContainer(OracleContainer.IMAGE + ":" + tag);
+
+        if (!tag.equalsIgnoreCase("latest")) {
+            throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Oracle database tag should be set in the configured image name");
+        }
+
+        return new OracleContainer();
     }
 }
diff --git a/modules/oracle-xe/src/test/resources/logback-test.xml b/modules/oracle-xe/src/test/resources/logback-test.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ed0e5b2659e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/oracle-xe/src/test/resources/logback-test.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+<configuration>
+
+    <appender name="STDOUT" class="ch.qos.logback.core.ConsoleAppender">
+        <!-- encoders are assigned the type
+             ch.qos.logback.classic.encoder.PatternLayoutEncoder by default -->
+        <encoder>
+            <pattern>%d{HH:mm:ss.SSS} %-5level %logger - %msg%n</pattern>
+        </encoder>
+    </appender>
+
+    <root level="debug">
+        <appender-ref ref="STDOUT"/>
+    </root>
+
+    <logger name="org.apache.http" level="WARN"/>
+    <logger name="com.github.dockerjava" level="WARN"/>
+    <logger name="org.zeroturnaround.exec" level="WARN"/>
+    <logger name="com.zaxxer.hikari" level="INFO"/>
+    <logger name="org.rnorth.tcpunixsocketproxy" level="INFO" />
+    <logger name="io.netty" level="WARN" />
+    <logger name="org.mongodb" level="INFO" />
+    <logger name="org.testcontainers.shaded" level="WARN"/>
+    <logger name="com.zaxxer.hikari" level="INFO"/>
+
+    <turboFilter class="ch.qos.logback.classic.turbo.MarkerFilter">
+        <Marker>PROFILER</Marker>
+        <OnMatch>DENY</OnMatch>
+    </turboFilter>
+</configuration>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/modules/oracle-xe/src/test/resources/testcontainers.properties b/modules/oracle-xe/src/test/resources/testcontainers.properties
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..19b5c4680e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/oracle-xe/src/test/resources/testcontainers.properties
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+oracle.container.image=wnameless/oracle-xe-11g@sha256:15ff9ef50b4f90613c9780b589c57d98a8a9d496decec854316d96396ec5c085