Fed: Navy moves to solve 60-year-old mystery

AAP General News (Australia)
08-17-2001
Fed: Navy moves to solve 60-year-old mystery

CANBERRA, Aug 17 AAP - A Royal Australian Navy team departs for remote Christmas Island
later this month to exhume the grave of an unknown sailor, hopefully solving a 60-year-old
wartime mystery.

The sailor washed ashore in a life raft on February 6, 1942, and may be the only crew
member of the cruiser, HMAS Sydney, to find a grave ashore.

In one of the enduring mysteries of World War II, the Sydney sank with all 645 crew
members after a close range gun battle with the German raider, Kormoran, off the West
Australian coast on November 19, 1941.

The 317 survivors from the 397 aboard the Kormoran were picked up over ensuing days,
giving the only witness accounts of the battle.

The unknown sailor's decomposed body was buried in an unmarked grave on the island,
which was occupied by Japanese forces a short time later.

The navy expedition, which departs on August 24, follows a visit to the island in June
by a team which surveyed the old European cemetery and was confident it had located the
grave site.

That expedition conducted a full survey of the cemetery and marked an area of some
12sqm for investigation.

Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government, Senator Ian Macdonald
has now issued an exhumation order permitting the excavation.

The team comprises RAAF Reserves Squadron Leader Dr Denise Donlon, an anthropologist
and archaeologist from Sydney University and member of the previous expedition, forensic
dentists Lieutenant Commander Matt Blenkin, RAN, and Dr Russell Lain (Lieutenant, RAN
Reserves), and forensic pathologists Dr Jo Duflou (Wing Commander, RAAF Reserves) and
Dr Alan Cala (Captain, Army Reserves).

Drs Duflou and Cala are from the NSW Institute of Forensic Medicine.

Lieutenant-Commander Richard Chartier, the team leader of the first expedition, heads
this expedition.

He said the first visit was limited to locating the unmarked grave while the second
will be conducted as a professional archaeological dig.

"It will include an attempt to establish the cause of death, should any remains be
exhumed." he said in a statement..

"DNA testing of any remains will also be conducted."

However, the navy has cautioned the identity of any remains may never be established.

Should remains be found, a decision will be made in due course regarding their future
reinterment.

AAP mb/rs m

KEYWORD: SYDNEY

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