Anzac Day dawn services at Semaphore, Morphett Vale and Brighton set to go ahead after SA Government offers support to meet COVID rules

Premier Steven Marshall says SA’s three largest suburban dawn services look set to go ahead after all, with the Government offering “all the support we possibly can”.

The scaled-back Anzac Day dawn service at Semaphore held last year. Picture: AAP/Morgan Sette

Adelaide’s three largest suburban dawn services look set to go ahead after all, with Premier Steven Marshall stepping in to offer staffing and financial support.

Mr Marshall says the Government has made contact with the Semaphore, Morphett Vale and Brighton RSL branches to offer whatever support they needed to hold the services.

“We have reached out and offered all the support we possibly can to make sure these (dawn services) go ahead.”

He said the RSL sub branches could not be forced to go ahead with the services but would have the support to do so if they wanted to.

“I think we will find the negotiations will continue, but I think that these dawn services will go ahead.”

Mr Marshall said support could include providing extra staff and extra funds for essential items, such as fences, to maintain a COVID-safe event.

“The RSL sub-branches are voluntary, so they don’t have a large number of personnel,” he said.

“They don’t have the personnel that maybe a WOMAD or a footy league would have, and we recognise that – we want to make sure that the commemorations go ahead.”

Mr Marshall, who is also the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, said Anzac Day was “the most important day of the year for the entire country”.

“It’s still going to be modified, but we want to make sure that as much as possible it can go ahead.”

It comes after the state’s three largest suburban dawn services, which between them attract about 30,000 people each Anzac Day, cancelled because organisers could not meet COVID rules.

On Thursday, RSL state president Cheryl Cates said public services at Brighton, Semaphore and Morphett Vale would not go ahead this April 25, because of the difficulty controlling crowd numbers.

Opposition veterans’ affairs spokesman Blair Boyer said Mr Marshall should have held discussions with the sub-branches earlier.

“Steven Marshall has clearly taken his eye off the ball when it comes to the organisation of Anzac Day,” he said.

“We always know when Anzac Day is going to fall, we have a lot of time to get the planning right.”

People pay their respects at the war memorial on the foreshore at Semaphore. Picture: AAP/Morgan Sette

Mrs Cates said the services held by the Semaphore and Port Adelaide, Morphett Vale & District and Brighton RSL clubs were the three biggest outside the city.

Mrs Cates said the volunteer-run sub-branches would have been forced to hire barriers to control crowd numbers and meet COVID-safe plans, something they could not afford.

“We don’t want to go backwards with COVID,” Mrs Cates said at the time.

“We’re all trying to do the right thing for our veterans because they are ageing.”

The Semaphore and Port Adelaide RSL announced the cancellation of its dawn service, which attracts more than 10,000 people each year, on its Facebook page.

The post attracted 160 comments, with most critical that crowds of up 40,000 can gather at Adelaide Oval for the football and Mad March activities were in full swing, but the dawn service cannot go ahead.

Club president Derek Meadows said members had been “anguishing” for months over whether it was safe to hold a dawn service.

“We were quite devastated to have to make the final decision,” Mr Meadows said.

“We’re just not satisfied that we could police the numbers.”

He said the difficulty with the foreshore was there were no defined entry and exit points, to control crowd numbers.

“If you put a barrier up saying 1000 people can come in, you still have 9000 people who can’t come in, so who do you invite? Mr Meadows said.

“But then, we don’t really think Anzac Day is the day to be putting barriers up anyway.”

An Anzac Day dawn service at Semaphore. Picture: Mark Brake

A dawn service would instead be held in the RSL clubrooms for members and invited guests, with numbers capped at 200.

Morphett Vale & District RSL sub-branch secretary Jarrad Kay said cancelling the dawn service – which attracts about 17,000 people – had been a difficult and emotional decision.

“Given we’re a small club, to find people to look after the gates, the QR codes … logistically and financially, we could not make it happen,” Mr Kay said. “We have loved to have been able to do it.”

He said a service for 500 people would instead be held and livestreamed.

Mr Kay said 200 of the attendees would be RSL members and VIPs, and the remaining 300 places would be for the public, via a ticketing system.

People wanting to pay their respects are encouraged to visit memorials during Anzac Day, or to take part in Light up the Dawn.

Light up the Dawn was launched last year when COVID restrictions were in full force, and encouraged people to remember and pay their respects from their driveways.

Anzac Day commemorations will still go ahead in the CBD this year, but will be scaled back to meet COVID-19 requirements.

Numbers at the dawn service at the SA National War Memorial on North Terrace will be capped and attendees will need to register, with bookings to open in early April.