BUNINYONG Returned and Services League sub-branch aims to ensure all soldiers in the township's ceremony are identified in the township's cemetery by Remembrance Day.
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Those they have recognised in time for Anzac Day have exceeded expectations as bit -by-bit they work to restore history.
Buninyong RSL president Ron Fleming said about 100 servicemen had been found in the cemetery so far without recognition on headstones to indicate they had served this country.
He said the RSL was keen to place Australian flags on as many of their graves as possible in a sign of respect, remembrance and honour.
"Earlier graves, usually World War I soldiers who were not brought home, their deaths were inscribed on family headstones but without ex-service markings," Mr Fleming said.
"About when the lawn sections came in they became more obvious through markings on headstones...Not every grave is obvious."
World War I soldiers who were not brought home, their deaths were inscribed on family headstones but without ex-service markings...Not every grave is obvious.
- Ron Fleming, Buninyong RSL president
The project has been a gradual process for the RSL, which has members walking the cemetery and recording names marked as ex-service or that feature as an extra name on a headstone. Mr Fleming said such recognition and protocols varied through different memorial styles through the decades.
Potential names were then cross-checked with lists of servicemen for the region.
Mr Fleming said the RSL had discovered one soldier from the Boer War in South Africa from this process.
This is different to the work underway this week to install plaques for 19 lost WWI servicemen in Ballarat new and old cemeteries.
A ceremony was conducted at Ballarat New Cemetery late Thursday afternoon to recognise these men who had been lying in unmarked graves.
In Buninyong, the hunt has been for servicemen who are in marked graves but without military recognition.
Mr Fleming said Buninyong RSL welcomed information from families where a former service member's headstone did not include military service.
Buninyong RSL will host three Anzac Day services, including a cemetery service to honour all former defence force personnel who are interred in the grounds. Australian flags will fly across identified graves in Buninyong's lawn section, memorial rose garden and older sections.
The major commemorative service is held in Buninyong's RSL Park at 10.15am. The guest speaker will be Major Chris Fox, operations officer with the 8/7th battalion for Ballarat Ranger Barracks.
There will also be a short afternoon service in Cambrian Hill's memorial avenue.
These are a further step towards COVID-normal services after two years ago when Mr Fleming conducted Buninyong's memorial ceremony by himself - laying a wreath, reciting The Ode, listening to The Last Post and Reveille, moving the flags, and singing the national anthem - due to lockdown restrictions.
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