'There is such a great space of water between us,' wrote a bereaved Australian mother in 1921 of her son's distant grave. Australia's losses in World War I were staggering. Around 416,800 Australians enlisted. At nearly 65%, Australian casualties were the highest of any nation. Some 61,500 died, and many more suffered for their service.
This immensity of loss needed to be transformed into something meaningful. Society needed new rituals and collective responses.
At the war's beginning, burials were haphazard. Many were buried on battlefields, in civilian cemeteries and some in mass graves. The uncertainty caused great distress to families. The distance between families and graves added to their grief. Without a grave, Australian families could not go through the familiar comforting rituals of funeral and mourning.
As the war progressed, the communal need to commemorate the dead found expression. Organised wreath-laying for Australian graves started, and some graves were 'adopted'. There were grave visiting pilgrimages and other acts of collective commemoration.
One of the largest and most socially significant efforts of commemoration and remembrance is the continuing work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).
Fabian Ware and his Red Cross Unit arrived on the Western Front in 1914. He saw an urgent need for a formal burial system. Ware's unit became the Graves Registration Commission. When a Royal Charter established the CWGC in 1917, its staff started work in the chaos of the Western Front. With meticulous care, they marked and recorded graves, identified bodies and moved isolated graves to cemeteries.
For Ware, the work of the CWGC was more than bringing order; it was recognition of each individual's service and sacrifice. This was expressed in the CWGC's founding principles. All would be buried individually and commemorated equally, regardless of rank or religion. Each grave would be tended in perpetuity, and families chose the epitaph.
The CWGC set out to create places of peace and beauty for remembrance. Its war cemeteries are recognisable with their white marble headstones and carefully planned gardens. In many ways, the commission assumed traditional familial work, placing headstones, planting and tending to the graves. Its work gave the bereaved the language, rituals and places to transform loss and violence into something meaningful.
The Office of Australian War Graves (OAWG) cares for the Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery. Continuing the principles of the CWGC, it builds and cares for the graves and memorials of Commonwealth service people.
Bomana holds the graves of 3,800 Commonwealth service people who served in the Pacific in World War II. Almost 1 million Australians served with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and the Merchant Navy. More than 40,000 did not return home, including over 17,000 who died in the war against Japan. Members of the Australian Army, the RAAF and the Merchant Navy with no known grave are commemorated on the Port Moresby Memorial which stands behind the Bomana Cemetery.
Those who rest in Bomana include the Victoria Cross recipients, Corporal John Alexander French and Private Bruce Steel Kingsbury; Able Seaman Rex Julius, the first RAN war artist; and Flight Lieutenant Philip Mullens DFC of the RAAF who flew with 'great dash'. Private John Burke of Port Adelaide died of wounds 1942, and Ordinary Seaman Phillip Alexander Rennison of HMAS Australia died in 1943. Sister Marie Craig, who was mentioned in dispatches, was killed in an aircraft crash in 1945. Each loss, while part of a greater tragedy, is individual.
In nearly 125 years since Federation, more than 1.5 million Australians have served in wars and conflicts. Tens of thousands more have served and continue to serve in peace operations, honouring a long commitment to Australia's global role. Remembrance Day is the day that we recognise and remember those who have died or suffered for their service.
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