History plaque
This cemetery contains 27 war graves from the Second World War, comprising of 26 Australian soldiers and one member of the Royal Air Force. Five Australian Army casualties of the Second World War and one from the First World War are buried in the Cowra General Cemetery.
In 1940, a major infantry training base was established at Cowra, providing reinforcements for the 2nd A.I.F. Cowra was also the location of No. 12 Prisoner of War Compound, and it was there that 1,104 Japanese P.O.W.'s launched a mass breakout on 5 August, 1944. Although the Australian military guards were able to contain the escape attempt, four Australian soldiers and 234 Japanese P.O.W.'s were killed.
The Australian dead lie in this war cemetery. The graves of the Japanese are in the adjacent Japanese War Cemetery. Among those [are] other Japanese war dead and civilian internees.