Vindicatrix Boy

ANZAC Eve 2007 saw the staging of a unique tribute to the merchant navy when Adelaide schoolchildren, veterans and families launched a fleet of paper lifeboats bearing lighted candles on the Port River.

It was a stunning new ANZAC image and a fitting tribute to the seafarers who rowed the troops ashore at Gallipoli. Many of the school students had put the name of their veteran great-grandfather or grandfather on the side of their paper lifeboat. Other students had written ‘World Peace’.

The event was a poignant reminder that many of the troopships that transported Australian troops to Gallipoli departed from Port Adelaide. Our photo taken in 1915 shows troops boarding one of those troopships at a Port Adelaide wharf and some of the men can be seen in the lifeboats that later took them ashore on that fateful night. (Photo courtesy of the State Library of South Australia. South Australian Database Image Number B 41850.)

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People came from as far away as Leigh Creek the desert town 567 kilometres north of Adelaide to see the first ever Anzac Eve tribute to the merchant navy.

Many of those who were there launched paper lifeboats containing lit candles with the name of their great grandfather or grandfather who served in World War One or World War Two on their lifeboat.

More news and pictures of this event and the ANZAC Day march will be posted soon.

Photographs by Sama Reid, Publications Officer, Port Adelaide Enfield Council