The Office of Australian War Graves (OAWG) is a branch within the Australian Department of Veterans' Affairs

Department of Veterans' Affairs (Australia)

The Department of Veterans' Affairs is an Australian Government department. Within its portfolio is:*Australian War Memorial*Military Rehabilitation & Compensation Commission*Office of Australian War Graves*Repatriation Commission...

 and was formed on January 1, 1975. The OAWG acts as Australian agent for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...

 (CWGC).

The responsibilities of the OAWG generally fall within the following five areas.http://www.dva.gov.au/commem/oawg/general.htm#general

• Processing of new official commemorations
• Maintenance of war cemeteries, plots, individual graves, post-war commemorations and battle exploit memorials
• Management of major projects at overseas locations
• Provision of research services for commemorative information, and
• Issuing permission to use the relevant Service badge.

The OAWG is also responsible for the maintenance of some 20,000 graves of Commonwealth war dead in 76 war cemeteries & plots and in numerous civil cemeteries, as well as Memorials to the Missing listing over 3,000 names throughout Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance...

, Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

 and the Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

.