The Minister for Defence Science and Personnel announced on 17 February that Oxford Archaeology would carry out the excavation at Pheasant Wood Fromelles.
Photo: Pheasant Wood Fromelles, Winter 2009. [Hubert Hutchett]
The media release from the Department of Defence Science and Personnel stated:
The Minister for Defence Science and Personnel, the Hon Warren Snowdon MP, along with his British counterpart, Under-Secretary of State for Defence and Minister for Veterans, Mr Kevan Jones MP today jointly announced that Oxford Archaeology had been awarded the contract to undertake the excavation of an Australian and British First World War group burial site at Fromelles, France.
Mr Snowdon said Oxford Archaeology was awarded the archaeological excavation contract based on their ability to meet the unique requirements of the project and their superior operational and management structure.
“The Australian and British Governments will share the cost of the Pheasant Wood excavation, which is expected to take up to six months depending on several factors including the weather, soil conditions and the actual number of remains recovered,” Mr Snowdon said.
“The awarding of this contract means that planning can begin in earnest for the excavation to commence in May this year and I look forward to work commencing that will ultimately see our brave soldiers fully honoured and laid to rest.”
Two technical advisers and one representative each from the Australian Defence Force, United Kingdom Ministry of Defence and Commonwealth War Graves Commission were responsible for evaluating the tenders and ultimately awarding the contract.
This process required each representative to independently review the tenders and develop assessments over a seven-day period, before spending two days as a group debating the merits of each application.
“There has been a particularly close and amicable working relationship between our two countries on this project to excavate potentially 400 sets of human remains from the First World War burial site,” Minister Jones said.
“By the end of the project in 2010 all the bodies will be permanently laid to rest in individual graves at a new Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at Fromelles. Wherever it is possible to identify the remains, named graves will be provided,” Minister Jones said.
The Australian Army is developing a working list of those First Australian Imperial Forces soldiers it believes may be buried at the site and is encouraging potential relatives to register on Army’s ‘Fromelles Relatives’ database. More information is available online at www.defence.gov.au/fromelles or via the dedicated public inquiries line 1800 019 090.
Background: The group burial at Pheasant Wood was confirmed during a limited excavation in May 2008. It is believed up to 400 Australian and British soldiers still lie at this site where they were buried by German forces following the Battle of Fromelles in July 1916.
The Battle of Fromelles began 19 days after the opening of the Somme campaign, and was the first battle fought by Australians on the Western Front. It is known as Australia’s bloodiest 24 hours with 5,533 Fifth Australian Division casualties including 1,917 killed.
Planning is underway for a full archaeological excavation of the site and individual reinterment of remains in a new Commonwealth War Cemetery at Fromelles, to be known as the Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery. The archaeological excavation is scheduled to commence in May 2009 and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is overseeing the work on behalf of both the Australian and British Governments.
DNA testing of an initial cross-section of remains has been agreed and, if this process returns positive results, consideration will be given to testing the balance of remains as part of the overall identification process.
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ABC News: Fromelles WW1 site excavation to begin in May. Click here for more details.
www.Australia.to News from Australia and around the World: Oxford Archaeology wins excavation contract. Click here for more details.
Media-Newswire: Fromelles WW1 graves excavation contract announced. Click here for more details.
Telegraph.com.au: British soldiers exhumed for individual burial. Click here for more details.
Evening Standard: British soldiers exhumed for individual re-burial First World War grave. Click here for more details.
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The Families and Friends of the First AIF thanks the Australian, UK and French governments for affording Australian and British soldiers – presently buried in mass graves at Pheasant Wood – dignified individual reburials in a new CWGC cemetery at Fromelles, and applauds Minister Snowdon and his British counterpart, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence and Minister for Veterans, Kevan Jones MP, for their joint decision to DNA test the remains at exhumation and use every reasonable method to attempt identification of each soldier.