Following the Fromelles Project being the subject of a number of press articles as reported in RECENT NEWS items Fromelles in news and Archaeological Debate, the Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, The Hon. Greg Combet AM MP made a detailed Ministerial Statement to the Australian Parliament’s House of Representatives on Wednesday 19 August. The statement covered the governance arrangements of the project, the progress with excavation, the approach to water management issues and details of the DNA testing processes, in particular that it includes testing of load bearing bones as well as other bones such as hands and teeth. The Minister also outlined the arrangements for reinterment and commemoration as well as costs. The Minister also advised that today was an open day for the media at the Fromelles site. His statement was followed by a response by the Shadow Minister for Veteran’s Affairs, Mrs Louise Markus MP. Their full statements are recorded in the draft Hansard transcript for 19 August pages 66 to 71 and provide considerable detail of the background to the Fromelles Project as well as its current status. Both speakers acknowledged the contribution of Lambis Englezos AM in the identification of the Pheasant Wood site as likely to contain the remains of Australian and British soldiers and also recognised the contributions of others in this process.
Several media reports draw on the Ministerial statement. Click on the following links:
Combet defends Fromelles exhumations: Max Blenkin, The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 August
Fromelles remains ‘mostly Diggers’: Patrick Walters, The Australian, 20 August
Some of these reports refer to comments attributed to Johan Vandewalle. Johan is well known to many FFFAIF members and visitors to the Western Front battlefields, particularly for his hospitality at his ANZAC Rest cafe at Polygon Wood. Johan was a key person in the recovery of the 5 Australian soldiers at Zonnebecke and the subsequent identification of 3 of them with the aid of DNA analysis. Johan is a civil engineer by profession who has developed his expertise in tunnelling and is a co-author of the authoritative book Beneath Flanders Fields: The Tunnellers’ War 1914-1918 along with British Historian Peter Barton and Professor Peter Doyle, Visiting Professor in Geosciences at University College London. His co-authors are also the co-secretaties to the British All-party Parliamentary War Graves and Battlefields Heritage Group.
Photo: Johan Vandewalle and Lambis Engelzos
Other media reports relating to Fromelles include:
WWI dig finds remains of Australian soldiers: AFP, 9News, 20 August
Graves tell story of the forgotten battle of Fromelles: Sam Jones, The Guardian, 20 August
France: New Light on 1916 Battle: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, 20 August
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TheFamilies and Friends of the First AIFapplauds the joint Australian–UK decision, announced by The Hon Greg Combet AM MP and the Hon Kevan Jones MP, to conduct a full DNA testing program on the remains of Australian and British soldiers found in mass graves at Pheasant Wood (Fromelles), and for their continuing commitment to identify as many of the fallen as is possible. We also thank the Australian, UK and French governments for affording dignified individual reburials for these soldiers, buried by German soldiers following the Battle of Fromelles on 19/20 July 1916, in the new Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery presently under construction at Fromelles.