Fromelles Board's Report

The joint announcement by the Australian and British Government on 3 September 2009 that Oxford Archaeology had completed the archaeological excavation of Pheasant Wood with the recovery of a total of 250 soldiers brings to a close the second stage of the Fromelles Project. 

Photo: Pheasant Wood excavation completed
[Australian Army Fromelles Project]

The Fromelles Management Board has released a Report of Proceedings to September 2009. This comprehensive report outlines the project management approach taken and the use of subject matter experts, the tender arrangements, details of the types of DNA techniques used and the conclusions drawn from the pilot stage and the standards of work.  The report is posted on the Australian Army Fromelles Project website and can be read by clicking here. 
The website also reports on the activities which will take place on the site until the end of October when the Oxford Archaeology team will leave the site and contains photographs of some of the last artefacts recovered from the site. To read this report click here.  

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has also updated its website remembering Fromelles and now features a video report on DNA testing of samples collected from the soldiers exhumed from Pheasant Wood. To view the video click here.  The update also includes a posting entitled  A DNA refresher. To read the posting click here. 
Another recent posting contrasts the modern techniques used at Pheasant Wood to detect and exhume the remains of the soldiers buried by the Germans in 1916 and those used by the Graves Recovery Teams after the Armistice. To read this posting click here.

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The Families and Friends of the First AIF applauds 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.