Mr Richardson's uncle, Harold, is one of 14 Illawarra men still unaccounted for after the Battle of Fromelles on July 19, 1916.

He is also one of 170 Australians whose identity tags were collected by the Germans before being buried in a paddock at Pheasant Wood, near Fromelles.

The site of the mass grave was confirmed by a research team in May. It is also believed to contain the remains of 300 British soldiers.

Some remains found by researchers were re-buried pending a decision by the Australian, British and French governments on what to do with the site, which has been donated to war graves authorities by its French owner.

Australian Federal Defence Minister Warren Snowdon said yesterday the soldiers would be re-buried with full military honours. He said it had been agreed that individual military burial was the most fitting way to commemorate the soldiers and would ensure their heroism would be remembered and revered.

Mr Richardson, 70, said that after 92 years, there was an argument for leaving the graves undisturbed.

"They were discussing the option of just putting a memorial above the site with the names on the memorial and I was quite happy with that, without disturbing them," he said.

"It would have been far easier to do that than to try and individually identify each person."

He was sceptical about the ability to identify individuals after so many years.

"If I could be guaranteed they had positively identified my uncle, I might be a bit more interested in the idea of an individual burial," he said.