Remembrance Day: Cross vandals won’t beat us, say war veterans

Defiant war veterans have a message for the people accused of wrecking Remembrance Day shrines in the city.

Veteran Don Corey, and St Aloysius College year 10 Emily Crocker, with year 9s Avalon Smeaton and Freja Milne planting the 2/43rd Battalion Association memorial cross at the Field of Remembrance at the National War Memorial. Picture: Morgan Sette

Returned servicemen and schoolchildren who give their time to plant thousands of memorial crosses in Adelaide on Remembrance Day each year have vowed to continue the tradition, despite a spate of vandalism.

Police are guarding the crosses, near the National War Memorial on North Terrace, after they had been repeatedly knocked over, stolen and damaged, leading to three arrests.

The RSL co-ordinates the annual Field of Remembrance display. Children from various schools join veterans from across Adelaide to plant the crosses in the 10 days leading up to November 11.

Simon Kelly has long played a key role in helping students from St Aloysius College plant the crosses to honour members of the 2/43rd Battalion who died in World War II.

Police guarding the crosses near the war memorial, after reports of vandalism ahead of Remembrance Day. Picture Dean Martin

Mr Kelly was also a mate of Rat of Tobruk Bill Corey, who died, aged 101, in 2018.

Mr Corey helped connect the 2/43rd Battalion Association with the city-based Catholic girls’ school, which is now custodian of the battalion’s crosses.

“Every time the crosses are knocked down, we will restore them,” Mr Kelly said.

“That’s the least we can do to honour the service and sacrifice of those in the 2/43rd who died, that we may live in a free Australia, where all voices can be heard.”

Mr Kelly joined St Aloysius College students and Bill Corey’s son, Don, on Monday morning to plant more than 260 crosses in honour of fallen members of the 2/43rd. The display was alongside crosses for other battalions, units or regiments.

Within a few hours, every one of the 2/43rd crosses had been knocked over or stolen.

Crosses near the National War Memorial in North Terrace, Adelaide, knocked over by vandals just hours after they were planted by St Aloysius College Students for Remembrance Day.

Dozens of memorial crosses at the RSL's Field of Remembrance near the National War Memorial on North Terrace have been vandalised.

Don Corey, himself a 20-year army veteran, said the crosses were a symbol of the ultimate sacrifice soldiers had made, and veterans would not give in to the vandals.

“You can’t let them beat you,” Mr Corey said. “We won’t give in, we’ll just keep putting them back up again.”

RSL commemorations manager Keith Harrison told The Advertiser he had witnessed a group of people using the crosses as weapons on Monday night.

Mr Harrison said he had intervened in an attempt to retrieve the stolen property.

Police said they arrested three men about 1.30am yesterday – one from Alice Springs, 46, one from Pukatja in the APY Lands, 23, and one of no fixed address, 19.

Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said damage to significant sites, such as war memorials, deserved harsher penalties than acts of regular vandalism.

Yesterday, Mr Malinauskas introduced legislation that would give courts the authority to jail anyone found guilty of vandalising war memorials for 10 years, plus order them to clean up and pay for any damage. Under current laws, vandals can be jailed for 18 months.

“Governments need to do everything we can to preserve those monuments ,” he said.

Some of the crosses were pulled out and thrown on the ground.

Larger crosses were also damaged and removed.