Bushfires: Soldier salutes his ‘safari uncle’ and cousin

Lieutenant Kynan Lang bowed in front of the crosses he had just hammered into the ground to commemorate the lives of his uncle and cousin.

Lieutenant Kynan Lang at the site where his uncle and cousin, Dick and Clayton Lang, were killed fighting the bushfires on Kangaroo Island. Picture: Brad Fleet

Lieutenant Kynan Lang bowed in front of the crosses he had just hammered into the ground to commemorate the lives of his uncle and cousin.

His uncle Dick Lang and cousin Clayton Lang had been killed fighting the inferno on Kangaroo Island. Lieutenant Lang is picking up the baton they left behind.

An emotional Lieutenant Lang, who is on Kangaroo Island in his role as a logistics officer in the Army Reserve’s 9th Combat Service Support Battalion, on Tuesday visited the site where the burnt-out shell of his relatives’ car was found after the fire.

The 41-year-old father of three, a Norwood police officer, was joined by three Digger mates as he surveyed the car’s crumpled metal remains on the side of the Playford Highway near Gosse on the island’s northwest.

He kissed two metal crosses members of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers had made and hammered them into the ground as a lasting memorial to Dick and Clayton.

“Dick Lang was the uncle that I used to brag about in primary school,” Lieutenant Lang said. “I’d say to all my mates that he was the safari-ing uncle who went around the world and took people to do it.

“In fact there were times that I’d ring him in South Africa and I could actually hear the wildlife and lions roaring behind him. And it really put it into context that he was that safari-ing uncle you could brag about.

“He was larger than life — always has been and always will be.”

Lieutenant Lang is two years younger than his cousin Clayton, who became one of South Australia’s leading plastic surgeons. They were close growing up — Kynan the country boy from Loxton and Clayton, known as Clarrie, the city boy. They often exchanged fashion and music tips.

Clayton Lang.

“Clarrie was everything Go-Pro before they invented it — he was extreme,” Lieutenant Lang said.

“He was a skydiver. He would do anything that he could get a thrill out of.” When Clayton became a plastic surgeon who specialised in hand surgery, his skills were regularly used by Kynan and family members who were injured playing football. “He was larger than life, just like his father.”

Lieutenant Lang and his cousins are sixth-generation South Australians and the family has rallied behind Dick’s wife, Helen, Clayton’s wife, Christie, and their families.

Lieutenant Lang was at an Adelaide Hills Saturday morning market on January 4 with wife Joanna and children Cooper, 13, Siena, 10, and Jaxon, 1, when he saw a news alert on his phone that the previous day’s catastrophic Kangaroo Island inferno had claimed two lives.

A couple of hours later, his father, Darryl, Dick’s youngest brother, called with the horrible news that it was their family members.

Dick Lang.

Later that day, he got a call from the army, saying reservists were being called up to help locals on the island recover from the blaze which has claimed more than 60 houses and 216,000ha.

“My uncle and my cousin put the community before themselves and they gave their lives doing it, and I could only do the same,” Lieutenant Lang said.

“If I was asked, and they wanted me here, then I will do the same.

“I want to be here so that everyone is safe. I have some rank and ability to command people. And if I can keep them safe and save them from the fate of my uncle and my cousin then I’ve done my job.”

Lieutenant Lang will return to the mainland to attend the funeral of Dick and Clayton on Friday.

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