Hello listers The Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial was opened in the Ballarat Botanic Gardens by the Chief of the Australian Defence Force, General Peter Cosgrove AC MC on Feb. 6th, 2004 in the presence of an estimated crowd of 11,000 people of which I was privileged to be one. The booklet produced for this opening ceremony states: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial is dedicated to all Australians who became prisoners of war while fighting the enemy. The names include: those who were serving in the Australian Defence Forces; Australians serving in the Merchant Navy; and Australians who enlisted in the allied Defence Forces and were made prisoners of war while fighting the common enemy. No complete list of names of Australian prisoners of war has previously been compiled. Records from the Australian War Memorial, the Department of Veterans' Affairs, the National Archives of Australia, the State Library of Victoria, military histories, history web-pages, newspapers and replies resulting from an Australia-wide appeal for names have been consulted. There are errors and gaps in the records available. Unfortunately some names will have been overlooked. Provision has been made for additional names to be added to the Memorial. If you are aware of a name which you believe should have been included please write to the: Australian Ex-POW Memorial Committee c/- R&SL Rooms, 2 Lyons Street South, Ballarat, VIC 3350, Australia. enclosing documentary evidence supporting your recommendation." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The memorial has the names of more than 35,000 Australian POWs (about 8,600 died or were killed when they were prisoners of war, more than 4,000 have no known grave) arranged in alphabetical order, grouped by conflict, commencing with the Boer War on the left through to the Korean War, etched into the 130m long black granite wall. There were no Australia POWs in the Vietnam War. The memorial is an inspiring stone structure providing a moving setting for this important list of 35,000 names. At this time I do not know of a published list of the names carved into the memorial, but no doubt a list will be published on paper. There are over 23,000 from the Far East and South West Pacific listed on a database on the Australian War Memorial web-site (see link below) There are a number of valuable web sites which may be useful for research into your Australian military connections, including: The Australian War Memorial at; http://www.awm.gov.au/ This excellent web-site has many databases such as: Roll of Honour http://www.awm.gov.au/database/roh.asp World War 1 Nominal Roll http://www.awm.gov.au/database/nroll.asp World War 2 Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/ Australian Military Forces [AMF] Prisoner of War and Missing, Far East and South West Pacific Islands http://www.awm.gov.au/database/awm232.asp Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau files http://www.awm.gov.au/database/1drl428.asp The Commonwealth War Graves site at: http://www.cwgc.org/ (Netscape friendly but not IE friendly) Australians in the Boer War, Oz-Boer Database Project http://www.pcug.org.au/~croe/oz_boer0.htm If you have Australian military connections in your family research, or an interest in Australian history put the New Memorial at Ballarat on your list of "must visit" places. Daryl Povey Ballarat & District Genealogical Society http://www.ballaratgenealogy.org.au/