Hello to everyone with an ongoing interest in identifying the lost soldiers of Fromelles.
You may have read over the last weekend, the announcement that Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has been awarded a contract to help establish a DNA Biobank to aid in identifying recovered remains. The funding is by way of a contract undertaken with Department of Defence Innovation Hub.
A link to the announcement is set out below.
This is not a new approach to be dealing with the remains found at Pheasant Wood, Fromelles. The work relates to developing technology over the next 3 years, which may be applicable to ANY case (i.e. Fromelles or otherwise). It is a completely separate arrangement, which seeks to assist in identify persons’ remains uncovered mainly in New Guinea from actions in WWII.
But because the project will be seeking to work with DNA in different ways to which we might be used to, there may yet be some flow-on benefit when it comes to assisting with identifications for WWI soldiers, such as at Fromelles, and other places where remains become unearthed during groundworks, for things such as building excavations, or roadworks.
Let me again stress: This is not a replacement for the Fromelles Project. We will be continuing to deal with the identification of remains as they have been up until now. And if an ancestral connection is found which leads to us suggesting someone as a testing candidate, the submission for that will still be passed on to Unrecovered War Casualties – Army, as it has been. Once the UWC-A take over the testing process, we will then not have any further input unless there is an identification as a result.
Please let any persons who contact you in relation to QUT’s project know that it does not change what we are doing to identify the missing soldiers of Fromelles. And as always, we are hopeful of positive identifications as soon as they can be announced.
All the best with the research,
Geoffrey Benn,
President
Fromelles Association of Australia.
email: geoffrey@fromelles.info