About the Naval Graves Project
Welcome to the Naval Graves Project online archive.
The Project is an ongoing, nationwide effort to locate and document every naval interment within Australian territory.
Ambitious? Yes.
Achievable? Perhaps not entirely.
Worth doing? Absolutely.
Our Purpose
The NGP exists to:
- Research cemeteries and memorial parks for naval personnel
- Record the location of their resting places
- Remember the individuals behind the names
What makes our work unique is our scope. We record all those who served in an armed navy — regardless of race, creed, nationality, or whether they saw active service. Service itself is our only criterion.
Because of this, you’ll find some remarkable and unexpected stories in our archive:
two pre–World War One sailors of the Austro‑Hungarian Navy, a member of the little‑known NSW Marine Light Infantry, and many others whose histories have slipped between the cracks of official record‑keeping.
Why This Matters
Someone once told me, “Everyone has a grave.”
Sadly, this is not true — especially for sailors lost at sea.
Those who died in wartime are commemorated on the UK Naval Memorials or the Australian War Memorial. But the graves of sailors who served and returned are only recorded if their graves are recognised by the Office of Australian War Graves. Those who served in peacetime often vanish entirely from public indexes.
That is where we come in.
Our Approach
We treat a grave location as a portal to a life of service.
Cemeteries and memorial parks are not places of sorrow to us — they are guardians of memory, holding stories of adventures, hardships, and lives lived with purpose. Yet their power fades as families pass on and memories disappear.
The Naval Graves Project works to preserve those names and stories so they are not lost to the community. We aim to serve as a central, accessible archive for:
- researchers
- writers
- family historians
- and anyone who values the legacy of naval service
Every sailor deserves to be remembered.
Every story deserves a place to rest.
Our Partners
This website was created thanks to the goodwill of the Naval Historical Society of Australia (NHSA) which supports all efforts to promote understanding of Australia’s rich naval history. The history of individual service by the sailors listed in these pages all contribute to Australia’s naval history from colonial times to the present. Both the NGP and NHSA acknowledge support from the Government of New South Wales which contributed funds under the Community Grants Program to the development of this site.
Learn more about naval history. Visit the Naval Historical Society’s Website.
