Australia Yearbook - 2001

278 Year Book Australia 2001
7.24 VIETNAM VETERANS’ COUNSELLING SERVICE
1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98(a)
1998–99
1999–00
Type of counselling
no. no.
no.
no.
no. no.
Face-to-face consultation 33 996 33 411 (a)30 000 30 000 (a)27 000 27 509
Group session consultation 356 724 784 500 485 903
Country outreach consultation 20 398 20 723 21 523 27 000 (a)26 000 26 874
(a) Estimates.
Source: Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
The Office of Australian War
Graves (OAWG)
OAWG manages the War Graves Program and
maintains some 24,000 graves and memorials of
Commonwealth war dead in 75 war cemeteries,
plots and civil cemeteries in Australia, Papua New
Guinea, Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands) and
Norfolk Island. OAWG also makes an annual
contribution to the Commonwealth War Graves
Commission to assist with the maintenance of
war cemeteries elsewhere in the world. OAWG
represents the Australian Government’s interest
in the maintenance of graves of Australian service
personnel and war memorials that commemorate
those Australians who died in other conflicts, in
overseas countries. These include the United
Nations Memorial Cemetery, Pusan, Korea, and
the British Commonwealth Forces Cemetery,
Yokohama, Japan, and in Malaysia.
Another OAWG’s major tasks is the official
commemoration within Australia of those
Australian men and women whose deaths in
post-war years is accepted as due to their war
service. In recent years OAWG has processed
some 7,000 commemorations annually and it is
anticipated this trend will continue during
2000–01. The Office has some 245,000 memorials
under perpetual maintenance.
OAWG constructs major memorials at significant
locations where Australians have suffered and
died. In recent years memorials have been
dedicated at Hellfire Pass, Thailand; Le Hamel
and Fromelles in France; and at Sandakan, North
Borneo, Malaysia. The Anzac Commemorative
Site was constructed at North Beach, Gallipoli,
and dedicated on Anzac Day 2000.
The Office also cares for war graves and
cemeteries in Australia which contain the graves
of foreign service personnel and civilian internees
who died during the two World Wars. It also
maintains the graves of, and memorials to, former
Prime Ministers of Australia and
Governors-General, on behalf of the Department
of the Environment and Heritage.