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 mil ...
.
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
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
,
Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island ( , ; ) is an States and territories of Australia, external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head, New South Wales, Evans Head and a ...
,
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
and the
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...
.
Directors of War Graves
See also
*
Australian War Memorial
The Australian War Memorial (AWM) is a national war memorial, war museum, museum and archive dedicated to all Australians who died as a result of war, including peacekeeping duties. The AWM is located in Campbell, Australian Capital Territory, C ...
*
List of Imperial War Graves staff burials
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