Family gets closure 90 years on
Saying goodbye: The bodies were laid to rest with full military honours. (AFP: Kurt Desplenter)
Mollie Millis and Jim Hunter are in their 70s. Overnight they witnessed the burial of their uncle, and four other diggers, in Belgium.
They always knew their uncle, Private Jack Hunter, was killed at the 1917 Battle of Polygon Wood during World War I, but no remains were ever found.
That was until gas workers near the town of Westhoek dug up some bones last year. Eventually they unearthed five diggers.
Historians at the Australian War Memorial pieced together data and made a shortlist of possible names.
Then Belgium criminologists took DNA from the bones of the soldiers and compared it with material taken from a group of living relatives in Australia.
Mr Hunter says he hopes many more revelations like this will be made.
"It'd be good if it was. Yeah, for sure," he said.
"It'd help a lot of people.
"It's a big relief to them if they know what happened to them."
More remains
There are currently two mass graves in France and Belgium being investigated by battlefield archaeologists. Both contain Australian remains.
Michael Molkentin is a historian who is taking part in a documentary on Australians in World War I.
Although these five Australian soldiers were successfully identified using DNA, Mr Molkentin is not confident it can happen again.
"In a sense, I hope that [this case] doesn't have that effect - where it opens the floodgates, as you put it, because I feel that people will ultimately be disappointed with these things, just because it is so difficult," he said.
"With DNA testing, you're getting families involved and you're getting [their] hopes up.
"I am not advocating a DNA, sort of, unit dedicated to doing DNA tests on everyone who it could possibly be."
Officials involved in identifying Private Hunter agree.
They insist that not all remains would be simple to identify using DNA.
© ABC (Australian BRoadcasting COmpany), AU