War Graves – Program 3

Commemorations – Sub-Program 3.1
Care and Maintenance – Sub-Program 3.2

Objective

To commemorate, individually, the sacrifice of those Australian men and women who gave their lives during, or as a result of, their service to Australia and the Commonwealth in war, or who were prisoners of war, and to maintain these commemorations.

Description

The Office of Australian War Graves (OAWG) is a program of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs headed by the Director of War Graves, a statutory position created by the War Graves Act 1980. While the director is a statutory office holder, OAWG is not a statutory authority. The director in recent years has been Air Vice Marshal Alan E Heggen, AO FRAeS RAAF (Retd), who retired on 2 July 1997.

All Commonwealth servicemen and servicewomen who have died during wartime are individually commemorated by name either at the gravesite or on a memorial to the missing. On behalf of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Office of Australian War Graves maintains over 70 war cemeteries and five memorials to the missing throughout Australia and Papua New Guinea.

In addition, those veterans who die post-war from war-related causes are commemorated by OAWG - either in a civil or lawn cemetery, in a crematorium, or in an official garden of remembrance.

Important Documents

As well as the War Graves Act 1980, which relates to the appointment of the director, the following documents are determinants of the responsibilities of OAWG:

• the Charter of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 21 May 1917;
• War Cabinet decision of 10 March 1922; and
• formal agreements of 1 January 1975 between Australia and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Program Structure

The War Graves Program had two sub-programs:

3.1 Commemorations; and

3.2 Care and Maintenance.

Significant Developments in Managing the Office

Mainframe computer access was established for OAWG State-based staff so financial and other management responsibilities for depot operations could be devolved to State managers.

Staff of the commemorations section completed and implemented a continuous improvement project which expedites the processing of applications for official commemorations. Two new automated reports were added to the system to follow up outstanding plaques and memorials. Also, the mainframe system was altered so State branch office staff can directly input advice of death data onto the OAWG system.

A computerised records database was set up to replace cemetery paper registers which number in the thousands. The database was developed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and enables more timely responses to requests from the public for information about casualties of the two World Wars.

Table 14: Office of Australian War Graves Program resources summary

# All dollar and staff year figures for 1996-97 reflect attribution of the majority of Corporate Services Program running costs. Figures for 1995-96 do not reflect this full attribution and should not be used as a comparison with figures in 1996-97. For further information, please refer to the main note under Table 1 on Page 24.

Commemorations – Sub-Program 3.1

Objective

Following the receipt of a completed memorial form, to erect a standard commemoration in a civil cemetery within six months, a garden of remembrance commemoration within three months, and a crematorium commemoration within four months.

Description

The functions of this sub-program are carried out by OAWG national office and by outposted field staff.

Table 15: Commemorations Sub-program resources summary

# All dollar and staff year figures for 1996-97 reflect attribution of the majority of Corporate Services Program running costs. Figures for 1995-96 do not reflect this full attribution and should not be used as a comparison with figures in 1996-97. For further information, please refer to the main note under Table 1 on Page 24.

Other services

Through the commemorations sub-program, the office also provides a research service to next of kin, genealogists, researchers and other members of the public on the burial locations and commemoration details of those who have died in wartime. The office will obtain photographs of individual graves, war cemeteries and memorials for those next of kin unable to travel overseas or in Australia. As a further service, under authority delegated by the Minister for Defence, the office issues permission to use Service emblems on privately purchased memorials.

Care and Maintenance – Sub-Program 3.2

Objective

To maintain all official commemorations by regular inspections, maintenance and repair.

Description

The functions of the sub-program are carried out by field staff located in each State capital city, and at Adelaide River (south of Darwin), Townsville and Launceston.

Table 16: Care and Maintenance Sub-program resources summary

# All dollar and staff year figures for 1996-97 reflect attribution of the majority of Corporate Services Program running costs. Figures for 1995-96 do not reflect this full attribution and should not be used as a comparison with figures in 1996-97. For further information, please refer to the main note under Table 1 on Page 24.

New Policy Proposals

Refurbishment, Reconstruction and Relocation of War Graves and Related Facilities

Work undertaken in war cemeteries throughout Australia and Papua New Guinea included: complete renovation of Mildura (Vic) and Narromine (NSW), realignment of headstones and re-turfing at Newcastle (Sandgate, NSW), installation of an irrigation system at Parkes (NSW), drainage work at Springvale (Vic), horticultural upgrade at the German War Cemetery, Tatura (Vic), a new path at Lutwyche (Qld) and a vehicle safety barrier at Ipswich War Cemetery.

Restoration work to Crosses of Sacrifice were undertaken at Springvale, Sale and Bairnsdale (Vic) and Albury (NSW). Fifty headstones were replaced in the Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery (PNG).

Work undertaken in OAWG gardens of remembrance (GRM) included: improvements to visitor facilities at NSW which provided a new access from the GRM to the war cemetery and remedial work to various steel structures. Work also included installation of a chemical store and repairs to shelter roofs in Victoria, a flow-back device to the irrigation system and a safety railing in Queensland, provision of a wash-down bay in SA and commencement of an upgrade in WA.

The refurbishment of plaques at the Mount Thompson crematorium continued.

The commemorative projects for which OAWG has management or maintenance responsibility include:

Hellfire Pass Memorial Project

The Japanese Army built a railway from Moulmein in Burma to Ban Pong in Thailand between June 1942 and December 1943 using prisoners-of-war and impressed Asian labourers. Of the 60 000 Allied prisoners who worked on the railway, more than 12 000, including 2 700 Australians, died of disease, ill treatment, malnutrition and exhaustion. Hellfire Pass was the name given to Konyu Cutting where open fires were used to light the "night shift" during a period known as Speedo which saw frenetic activity day and night to put the construction schedule back on time.

Early in 1997, the 4.5km walking trail with rest stations and a toilet block was completed to cater for the increasing number of visitors to the area, one of whom was the Duke of Edinburgh. The previous year, the Government of Thailand had given the project its formal approval-in-principle. This cleared the way for continuing liaison with the Thai National Security Command towards securing the various forms of support necessary for the project to go ahead. The Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and the Director of War Graves met with the national executive of the Ex-Prisoner of War Association in September and April to ensure they were aware of the status of the project and to receive their views on its future direction. These meetings will continue at regular intervals until completion of the project.

The central feature of the memorial complex will be a museum which will tell the story of the prisoners’ commitment and suffering. The Bangkok branch of architects, Woods Bagot, were engaged to design the museum structure, while Hewitt Design Associates of Sydney have been contracted to design the displays and associated features for the complex.

The design concepts for the museum and associated displays were accepted in October while the architectural design was completed in February. The on-site project manager, Rod Beattie, brought negotiations between architect Woods Bagot (Thailand) and the selected tenderer, Chumnum Engineering and Construction, to a satisfactory conclusion and work began late in June. Definition of the commemorative displays continued and the relief model of the Hellfire Pass area was almost completed. The Director of War Graves inspected the model on 23 June.

Anzac Day saw the symbolic start of construction at the site of the memorial museum at a ribbon cutting and peg driving ceremony. Ex-POW veterans of the Burma/Thailand railway took part particularly in the peg driving segment with a vigour reminiscent of their wartime experience. Construction of the building is expected to be complete by February 1998. The displays will be installed and formal commissioning is planned for Anzac Day 1998.

Kokoda Memorial Project

In the latter half of 1942, the Battle of the Kokoda Track was fought between units of the Australian and Japanese armies over the Owen Stanley Range in Papua New Guinea for almost four months. In defeating the Japanese, the Australian Army sustained nearly 1 700 casualties, including more than 600 dead. Papua New Guinea people also suffered significantly and played a major part assisting with the transport of supplies and the evacuation of casualties.

The Kokoda Memorial Project began with the visit to Papua New Guinea in 1992 by the then Prime Minister, the Hon Paul Keating MP. The Government of Papua New Guinea, Rotary Australia World Community Service and local authorities at Kokoda subsequently agreed to build a memorial complex. The Australian Government provided $1.5m to construct a hospital, war museum, hikers’ guesthouse and airport terminal building, as well as village aid posts at Manari and Vesulogo (Sogeri) on the Kokoda Track. The Kokoda Memorial Complex was ceremonially commissioned in September 1995 by the Prime Ministers of Australia and Papua New Guinea.

At that commissioning, Prime Minister Keating committed the Australian Government to a second stage of the project to improve infrastructure facilities for the benefit of the people of Kokoda, many of whom had assisted the Allied forces. Using the services of Rotary Australia World Community Service, the water supply and reticulation was renovated, the roads between the airport terminal and the village adjacent to the hospital were upgraded, and the hospital precincts landscaped and fenced. Additional funding of $800 000 was allocated. Planning for this second stage of the project has taken some 18 months.

Senior officials of Rotary’s Kokoda Project committee started work on the Kokoda Memorial Project in March. Completion was due by 30 June 1997. However, severe storm and fire damage to villages in the area in the wake of a cyclone delayed the start. The work is now expected to be completed by September 1997.

In April, AVM Heggen inspected the completed Stage 1 works. During the official opening of the Vesulogo Aid Post, he was installed as a paramount chief of the Koiari people in recognition of his leading role in providing them with improved health facilities.

Sandakan Memorial Park

The Japanese Army moved about 2 750 prisoners of war from Singapore to Sandakan during 1942 and 1943. Of these, some 2 000 were Australian and 750 were British. In September 1943, about 2 550 Australian and British prisoners remained in the camp at Sandakan. Of these only six survived internment at Sandakan, the death marches to Ranau some 250 miles to the west, and internment at Ranau.

A Sandakan Memorial Park was constructed in the area adjacent to the site of the wartime prisoner-of-war camp (now a forest reserve) by the Returned and Services League of Australia and the local authorities. Responsible for the on-going maintenance of the memorial park are the Commonwealth of Australia, the Government of Sabah, the Sandakan Municipal Council and the Returned and Services League of Australia. OAWG acts for the Australian Government.

The memorial park contains certain post-war memorials as well as relics of the prisoner-of-war camp. Under a project approved by the Australian Government in the 1996-97 Federal Budget, the park will be further developed through preservation, housing and appropriate display of relics and the construction of a memorial museum.

Principal responsibility for the memorial park, and the land on which it stands, rests with the Sabah State Forestry Department.

Renovation work to upgrade visitor access was carried out by Thiess Contractors (Malaysia) who have also conducted a geotechnical survey of the area where the relics are. They have also prepared drawings of the proposed display and visitor access arrangements. It is envisaged that the company will be engaged to provide project management services, including survey, architectural design of structures and displays, to secure State and Local government approvals and to oversight the construction.

6th Australian Division (Stavromenos) Memorial, Crete

The defence of Crete by the 6th Australian Division in May 1941 is commemorated by a memorial at Stavromenos, Rethymno. The local municipal authority created the memorial, a tall obelisk on an elevated platform complemented by two 40mm Bofors guns provided by the Commonwealth of Australia. The memorial is maintained under arrangements with the local authority, the Australian Embassy in Athens and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

In recent years, souvenir hunters removed some of the unit colour patches from one of the main plaques on the memorial, and these had been replaced on more than one occasion by the Office of Australian War Graves. As a permanent solution to the problem, OAWG undertook to provide a replacement plaque with moulded colour patches. The new plaque was consigned to the Australian ambassador to Greece, Dr Robert Merrillees, who in turn delivered it to the Nomarch (mayor) of Rethymnon. The plaque was in place on the Stavromenos Memorial in time for the ceremony to mark the 56th Anniversary of the Battle of Crete on 25 May 1997. The local authorities arranged renovation of the Bofors guns and repair of flood-lighting.

Sparrow Force Memorial, Kupang, Timor

At the outbreak of the war in the Pacific, Australia garrisoned the islands of New Britain, Ambon and Timor to protect certain airfields and anchorages of strategic importance. In each case, a battalion with supporting arms and services was dispatched and each force had a bird codename. The garrison at Kupang in Western Timor, comprising 2/40th Battalion and supporting elements, was Sparrow Force. It was overwhelmed by a Japanese division late in February 1942 and sustained heavy casualties. Most of the survivors were taken prisoner but those few who escaped to East Timor mounted a guerilla campaign against the occupying Japanese forces. Many of Sparrow Force’s casualties now lie buried in the Ambon War Cemetery, Indonesia.

On 16 June 1992, a memorial to Sparrow Force was unveiled at Oesau Ridge near Kupang. The proposal to erect the memorial had been developed by veterans some two years earlier. Its construction was funded jointly by the veteran community and OAWG.

In the intervening years, the Sparrow Force memorial sustained considerable damage and deterioration. An extensive restoration including provision of a new bronze memorial plaque acknowledging the entire Sparrow Force Order of Battle was arranged by OAWG through AusAid officers engaged in a water supply project in Timor. Arrangements for the protection and maintenance of the memorial have also been made with the landowner on whose property it is located.

Kamunting Road Christian Cemetery, Taiping, Malaysia

Taiping, formerly a permanent British garrison town, was the location of Headquarters 28 Commonwealth Infantry Brigade Group from 1956 to 1959. This brigade, including an Australian battalion group, formed part of the British Commonwealth Far East Strategic Reserve. Ships of the RAN and several units of the RAAF were part of this reserve. The brigade fought in the Malayan Emergency and later various of its units fought in Borneo during the Indonesian Confrontation.

The graves of 178 British Commonwealth servicemen and dependants lie in the Kamunting Road Christian Cemetery, which is a civilian cemetery. Forty of these graves (28 servicemen and 12 dependants) are Australian. The Commonwealth graves have been maintained satisfactorily over the years under British Government contract. However, the rest of the cemetery had become overgrown and untidy. The Department of Veterans’ Affairs, through OAWG, joined the British Ministry of Defence in undertaking a major renovation of the entire cemetery. It has been renovated to a standard approaching that of a British Military Cemetery and the renovations were carried out by the Australian company, Thiess Contractors (Malaysia).

AVM Heggen visited the cemetery in February and April-May, to inspect renovations and to identify additional necessary work. The cemetery’s condition and standard of maintenance was found to be much improved. However, at the Director’s initiative, further work to improve landscaping and turf-coverage, in-painting of military headstone inscriptions, re-alignment of headstones, improvement of stormwater drainage and certain other works were initiated.

AIF Memorial, Mouquet Farm

From July to November 1916, during the battles of the Somme, Mouquet Farm was a central bastion in the German defence positions along Pozieres Ridge. Beneath the battered farmhouse on the crest of the ridge lay deep cellars and tunnels connected to a network of German trenches. The Australians were the first to attack the strongpoint on 5 August. Already reeling from 17 000 casualties suffered in capturing Pozieres just one kilometre distant, they clawed their way up the slopes leading to the farm. After a month, having suffered 6 300 casualties, the exhausted Australians were relieved by the Canadians.

In May 1996, during a visit to the farm by the Victorian Agent-General in London, Ken Crompton, the landowners, the Gonse family, indicated their willingness to donate a portion of land to be used as a site for a memorial commemorating the Australian action at Mouquet Farm. Ideas for the memorial were developed in consultation with Drs John Laffin and Ross Bastiaan. The memorial will be similar to the memorial located at the entrance to Mouquet Farm on a prominent corner by the Pozieres to Thiepval road. Provision will also be made for a small car park adjacent to the memorial.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has agreed to manage the project on behalf of OAWG which will fund the estimated $16 000 for the project. To mark the anniversary of the battle, the memorial is expected to be completed by August 1997 and the planned unveiling ceremony held in early September.

Australian National Korean War Memorial

From 1950 to 1953, Australia was one of 22 countries which contributed combat units to the defence of the Republic of Korea to counter invasion from, initially, North Korea, and later China. All three Australian Services served with distinction. Perhaps the best known action in which Australia was involved occurred at Kapyong on 23-24 April 1951, when 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR), together with Canadian and United States units, checked the advance of a Chinese division. 3RAR, as well as the other units involved, was awarded the United States Presidential Unit Citation for this action. Australia lost 339 dead in Korea, the majority of whom lie buried in the United Nations Memorial Cemetery at Pusan, Republic of Korea.

During 1994, veterans of the Korean War proposed the creation of a National Korean War Memorial in Canberra which was endorsed by the Canberra National Memorials Committee in November 1994. The memorial in Anzac Parade is expected to cost between $1.5m and $2m. The Commonwealth has already contributed $200 000 and the balance will be raised from the corporate sector and from a public fund-raising appeal. Principal management responsibility for the project resides with a committee of veterans of the Korean War.

The Government of the Republic of Korea provided several boulders from the Kapyong battlefield to form part of the memorial, and the site was formally dedicated on Kapyong Day 24 April 1996. The Australian National Korean War Memorial committee continues its fundraising activities. A design competition was launched in late 1996, in conjunction with the National Capital Authority. The Department of Veterans’ Affairs, through OAWG, continues to provide secretariat assistance to the committee.

Australian Service Nurses’ National Memorial

The proposal for a Service Nurses’ Memorial was initiated and sponsored by the Royal College of Nursing Australia (RCNA) in May 1995. Its purpose is to honour the service and sacrifice rendered by Australian military nurses in war since the first contingents were raised for service in the Boer War 1899-1902.

The Commonwealth Government allocated $100 000 to the memorial in its 1996-97 Budget, against the estimated cost of $1.5m to $2m. The Royal College of Nursing Australia intends raising the necessary funds through a public appeal. DVA is represented on the RCNA memorial management committee by the Director of OAWG. The site of the memorial, on Anzac Parade, Canberra, was dedicated on 15 February, the anniversary of the fall of Singapore in 1942. The Minister for Veterans’ Affairs represented the Australian Government at the ceremony.

Overseas Commitments

As a member of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), Australia, through the Office of Australian War Graves, contributes a share of the Commission’s operating costs. The contribution, based on the number of Australian war dead commemorated overseas, is 5.91 per cent. OAWG also provides funds for the maintenance of Australian battle exploit memorials overseas and for the pensions of retired Australian employees of the Commission’s Anzac Agency, which was wound up in 1974.

Australia’s contribution for maintenance of the United Nations Memorial Cemetery at Pusan, Korea is also paid by OAWG.

Table: 17: Comparison of costs

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