Marking (First World War) Private Graves Grants Program - 2025-26

The Australian Government is inviting applications via a demand driven process for grant funding under the Marking (First World War) Private Graves Grants (MPG) Program in 2025–2026.

An estimated 331,800 Australian personnel were deployed during the First World War. Approximately 60,000 were killed or are listed as missing in action, leaving some 271,800 service men and women who returned to Australia.

When they passed away, some were buried without a funeral or headstone.

More than 30,000 of these veterans have since had their deaths accepted as related to their war service and have been officially commemorated as post-war dead.

The objective of the MPG Program is to contribute to community recognition of the service and sacrifice of service personnel in the First World War who are not eligible for official commemoration by Government. It does this by providing funding to contribute to the cost of establishing a grave marker on currently unmarked private graves.

The intended outcome of the MPG Program is to contribute to the work being undertaken by the community to mark private graves of veterans of the First World War so as to enable community recognition of service and to preserve and add to the knowledge of, or provide information about, Australia’s wartime heritage.

To be eligible, you must be one of the following entity types:

• Company
• Cooperative
• Corporate Commonwealth Entity
• Corporate State or Territory Entity
• Incorporated Association
• Indigenous Corporation
• Local Government
• Non-corporate Commonwealth Statutory Authority
• Non-corporate State or Territory Entity
• Non-corporate State or Territory Statutory Authority
• Person
• Sole Trader
• Statutory Entity.

If you are applying as a Trustee on behalf of a Trust, the Trustee must be one of the eligible entity types as listed above.