The Office of Australian War Graves (OAWG) is a branch within the Australian Government
Department of Veterans' Affairs. The branch was initially a stand-alone agency, formed 1 January 1975. In 1980, the ''War Graves Act 1980 (Cth)'' formalised the position of Director War Graves within the Department of Veterans' Affairs.
The OAWG acts as Australian agent for the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations m ...
.
Responsibilities
The responsibilities of the OAWG generally fall within the following five areas.
* Processing of new official commemorations
* Maintenance of war cemeteries, plots, individual graves, post-war commemorations and battle exploit memorials
* Management of major projects at overseas locations
* Provision of research services for commemorative information, and
* Issuing permission to use the relevant Service badge.
The OAWG is also responsible for the maintenance of some 20,000 graves of Commonwealth war dead in 76 war cemeteries & plots and in numerous civil cemeteries, as well as Memorials to the Missing listing over 3,000 names throughout
Australia,
Norfolk Island,
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
and the
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...
.
Directors of War Graves
See also
*
Australian War Memorial
Further reading
* ''In Remembrance: The Work of the Office of Australian War Graves'' (2010)
References
{{reflist
External links
Official Site of the Office of Australian War Graves
Commonwealth Government agencies of Australia
Military history of Australia during World War I
Commonwealth War Graves Commission