What a shame at Anzac Cove

[My Australasia]

When respect paid but not shown by our young pilgrims.

Our shame at Anzac Cove

BLEARY-eyed couples cuddle on the graves of the fallen, while others use headstones as seats and pillows.

These are the Australian pilgrims who travelled halfway around the world and trashed the memory of the Anzacs.

As outrage mounted over the huge pile of bottles and fast-food wrappers left at Anzac Cove and Lone Pine, the RSL accused the young Australians of treating Gallipoli like a beer garden.

RSL Victoria chief executive John Deighton was furious and said it showed "a lack of respect".

NSW president Don Rowe said there was no excuse for leaving behind plastic bags, chip packets, chocolate wrappers, empty wine bottles and other rubbish.

"It's not a bloody celebration, it's a commemoration. It is not a time to lie around on graves and leave the place like a pigsty," he said.

Queensland president Bill Mason said it was disgusting.

"It resembled more like a cricket oval after a one-day cricket match or a football field after a game of football rather than a sacred site," he said.

Veterans Affairs Minister De-Anne Kelly defended the thousands of young Aussies and Kiwis who made the pilgrimage to Gallipoli, where more than 8000 Diggers died 90 years ago.

"Some people are on the Anzac site for 36 hours. There is no seating," she said from Turkey.

But Adam Youl, who made the journey from the Gold Coast, was upset by the rubbish left strewn around.

He said most of the young Australians at Lone Pine cemetery stood for the service and paid their quiet respects.

"The majority of people below were sitting on the grass between the gravestones but there were a couple of idiots sitting on the headstones," Mr Youl said.

"What upset me more was the rubbish that was left behind -- there were Coke cans and all sorts of crap everywhere."

Another dismayed pilgrim was Amy Hutton. "It's not a festival," she said.

Another was heard to say: "I didn't know I was at a carnival."

Office of War Graves deputy director Cathy Upton said most of the pilgrims showed respect.

With thousands jammed into the Lone Pine cemetery, she said it was inevitable that some were sitting or lying beside the gravestones.

But sitting on headstones was unacceptable, she added.

"We will be making announcements next year requesting that people do not do that," she said.

Ms Upton said the young crowd also showed their respect for the veterans who attended the services.

"They received standing ovations and I do not think the first Anzacs would have minded at all," she said.

Ms Upton said contractors had almost finished the job of cleaning up the grassy slopes from the beach to the cliffs that were covered in plastic bags, drink bottles, rotten fruit, fast-food leftovers, biscuit packets, empty alcohol bottles and other assorted garbage.

Even the wreaths laid by Prime Minister John Howard and the Prince of Wales had plastic bags and bottles blowing around them.

RSL chiefs also were angered by the pop music that blasted around Anzac Cove ahead of the dawn service, especially the Bee Gees' hit Stayin' Alive.

Ms Kelly revealed last night that she had given permission for the music, which was intended to keep people awake and upright so more could squeeze in for the ceremony.

We found with so many people arriving that we could not get people into the site," Ms Kelly said.

"On the night, we needed to encourage people to stay awake. The Bee Gees are an Australian group and it was felt they would be appropriate."

A John Farnham concert was ruled out months earlier.

"I felt it strange that the Bee Gees were played, particularly after the Kiwis knocked back John Farnham," Mr Deighton said.

"And Stayin' Alive, well you can't get any more offensive than that.

"It was supposed to be a commemoration of the fallen, but what happened is we've had a rock concert in the middle of the night, and people have left rubbish there without having the courtesy to pick it up.

"It's a lack of respect."

Mr Rowe, from the NSW RSL, also slammed the pre-service entertainment. "It was very inappropriate," he said.

"The connotations of that song in particular . . . I think they must have rocks in their heads."

While reaction at home was strong, RSL national president Maj-General Bill Crews said he was delighted with the crowd behaviour and had no problems with the Bee Gees.

"The whole thing was excellent," he said from Gallipoli.

"I don't think the Anzacs would have minded one little bit."

But some commentators said the dawn service at Gallipoli had become a victim of its growing popularity and seemed to have lost the simple beauty that had made the event special.

Grandstands, giant video screens, cordoned-off VIP sections and local entrepreneurs selling T-shirts, coffee and flashing glow-in-the-dark necklaces were not the marks of a sombre service to remember those who died in war.

Melbourne-based company Definitive Events, which was employed by the Department of Veterans' Affairs to stage the entertainment, was refusing to comment last night.

The company is better known for staging the Byron Bay Blues and Roots Music Festival.

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