Office of Australian War Graves explained

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.^[1] The OAWG acts as Australian agent for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of the OAWG generally fall within the following five areas.^[2]

• 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 and the Solomon Islands.

Directors of War Graves

Name	Period	Ref.
K. F. Macdonald	1978 – 3 May 1981
	22 June 1981 – 9 April 1984	^[3]
Peter Young	9 April 1984 – 1 October 1985	^[4]
	1 October 1985 – 19 June 1991	^[5]
	19 June 1991 – 3 October 1997
	3 October 1997 – August 2005
Major General Paul Stevens	2005–2010
	December 2010 – November 2015
Ken Corke	December 2015 – 10 January 2019
Brigadier Paul Nothard	11 January 2019 – present	^[6]

See also

• Australian War Memorial

Further reading

• In Remembrance: The Work of the Office of Australian War Graves (2010) ^[7]

External links

• Official Site of the Office of Australian War Graves

Notes and References

1. Web site: About Office of Australian War Graves. https://web.archive.org/web/20090614001940/http://www.dva.gov.au/oawg/about_OAWG/. 14 June 2009. Australian Government Department of Veterans' Affairs.
2. Web site: Office of Australian War Graves: General Information . https://web.archive.org/web/20060927032030/http://www.dva.gov.au/commem/oawg/general.htm . 27 September 2006 . dead.
3. News: Appointment of Director of War Graves . . G20 . Australia . 19 May 1981 . 21 May 2018 . 14 . National Library of Australia.
4. News: Veterans' Affairs War Graves Act 1980 Appointment of Director of War Graves . Commonwealth Of Australia Gazette . G17 . Australia . 8 May 1984 . 21 May 2018 . 1610 . National Library of Australia.
5. News: Veterans' Affairs War Graves Act 1980 Appointment of Director of War Graves . Commonwealth Of Australia Gazette . G31 . Australia . 6 August 1985 . 21 May 2018 . 2963 . National Library of Australia.
6. Web site: 10 January 2019. Appointment of new Office of War Graves Director. 2021-04-22. minister.dva.gov.au. en.
7. Book: In Remembrance: The Work of the Office of Australian War Graves . worldcat.org . OCLC . 711727830 . 13 April 2020.