Anzac Day committee allows Covid-safe return of crowds along march route

Crowds will be able to once again line the streets and salute South Australia’s veterans next month after a ruling by the state’s Anzac Day committee.

For the first time since 2019, crowds will return to the city’s streets to honour military veterans in next month’s Anzac Day march.

Covid forced spectators to be banned from the sidelines at last year’s march, which usually attracts crowds of thousands who pay their respects to veterans past and present.

In 2020, the march was cancelled all together.

But the Anzac Day Committee has announced that crowds will be back this year – despite a surge in Covid cases across South Australia in recent weeks.

“It is an outdoor event stretched out over a significant space, so there is no need for scrutiny with crowd numbers because people organically spread themselves out along the route anyway,” committee chairman Ian Smith said.

Last year’s crowdless Anzac Day march along North Terrace and King William Street. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

“We would recommend people are fully vaccinated to not only protect themselves, but protect some of our vulnerable participants.”

It comes after two years of no crowds.

Last year, the annual march was restricted to participants, veterans and their families to avoid large crowds at a time before vaccines were freely available.

“It was just a relief to put something on last year with the way things were,” Mr Smith said.

“We had to significantly reduce participation, there were no descendants and we only had bands on the side of the road.

“People were great about it, but it was still tough to have to turn people away.”

David Lascelles – a member of the Australian Defence Force for more than 40 years – has participated in the Adelaide march for more than two decades and other march events around the country for more than 30 years.

Returned soldier David Lascelles at the Torrens Parade Grounds. Picture: Russell Millard

He was an air traffic control officer for the Royal Australian Air Force and was involved in peacekeeping operations in Sinai, Egypt in the mid-1980s. His father also served in WWII and his grandfather fought in Gallipoli and on the Western Front in WWI.

He said the march was special to his family.

“I’m very mindful of the fact that my grandfather’s generation created Anzac Day. It was upon their return from the carnage of WWI that the day was born,” Mr Lascelles said.

“It’s not a pageant, it’s a march of remembrance.”

He joined the restricted event in 2021, but he said it did not feel the same.

“The warmth of the crowd plays a major part in the whole event, so it’s a great thing we’re back to normal this year,” he said.