Tour Down Under fans can climb hills for a view but not our war memorials, says RSL president

THE RSL has issued a plea for people to show proper respect for war memorials, which were treated as play equipment during the TDU opening race.

RSL SA president Tim Hanna says TDU fans must treat war memorials with more respect.

THE RSL has issued a plea for people to show proper respect for war memorials, which both children and adults treated as play equipment during the Tour Down Under opening race on Sunday.

People sat on, climbed and hung off the new Aboriginal and Torres St Islander War Memorial, the Australian Defence Force Health Services Memorial and Vietnam War Memorial that are all near the Torrens Parade Ground.

RSL state president Tim Hanna said the attitude of younger generations to memorials was born of ignorance rather than wilful disrespect, but was offensive to veterans nonetheless.

"In general terms they haven't been exposed to war and loss like previous generations so there is a degree of ignorance out there," he said.

"The World War I and II generations would have had a much clearer sense of what they mean and passed it on to their children."

Mr Hanna said the memorials should be cordoned off for future events to remind people to show them due respect.

"The food stands were almost right on top of them," he said.

"It wouldn't take much to segregate the memorials so we don't have people swinging from them and causing offence to veterans."

Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood was more relaxed about how people "interact" with memorials.

"I would discourage any undignified behaviour because they are important cultural and historical landmarks," he said.

"If people are using it to get a view of the race, that's OK as long as they are not doing something that's disrespectful, (but) I understand some people would think that was not appropriate.

"If they are defacing or making fun of it, that's a completely different kettle of fish."

A Tour Down Under spokeswoman said organisers would be happy to rope off memorials in future.