Adelaide River War Cemetery

Ever since visiting Adelaide River War Cemetery for the first time about 20 years ago, I have often wondered about the people who maintain it. How do they manage in the Wet when you can just about see the grass grow? When do they work? I’ve never seen anyone gardening there and yet is always beautifully maintained.

I met Shane Ploenges who manages the Adelaide River War Cemetery and the Alice Springs War Cemetery and who is also responsible for maintaining war graves in Katherine and Tennant Creek in the NT as well as those at Kununurra and Wyndham in WA one evening after work.

He told me that there are three main services a year at the Cemetery, the Bombing of Darwin Service in March, the Dawn Service on Anzac Day, and the Remembrance Day Service in November, so the run-up to these three services is very busy, with all the plaques on the graves being polished, lawns mown (three hours twice a week) and edges trimmed (up to five hours a week in the Wet!), bushes brought into order and general maintenance. Every war grave has to be visited once a year for maintenance, which can vary – those in Kununurra and Wyndham, for example, are surrounded by red earth (not lawns). Shane, therefore, has to travel long distances on occasion to fulfil this commitment, and it takes him and another full-time employee to keep everything up to standard. He studied for his horticulture certificates in Adelaide, and worked at the Garden of Remembrance (every capital city has one) for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, in the Department of Veterans’ Affairs before moving to the Territory about six years ago.

About 70,000 visitors make the trip to the Adelaide River War Cemetery every year, with tour buses regularly stopping, and in June and July, there can be up to a hundred people visiting at any one time. The visitor centre closed in the last couple of years, but there are information boards outside along the path for those who wish to know more. As in every war cemetery, there is a list of those who died in the entrance porch, with an accompanying map. The civilian cemetery attached is to the south-west, separated from the main area by a couple of tamarinds, a mango tree that is estimated to be over a hundred years old (the area used to be an orchard), Thevetia peruviana, and some well-maintained foliage species.

Shane loves his job – all of it, especially the aspects involving garden design, and finding the right plant for the right spot, and he enjoys the peace of the evenings, as he makes his rounds and closes the gates for the night (to keep the wallabies out!).

When I visited, the allamandas, desert roses, and tabernaemontanas were in full flower, and the four ixora hedges bordering the main aisle were beginning to flower again after being clipped recently. Two large tamarind trees flank the cross, with the one to the north-east being heritage listed. More tamarinds are planted in the corners, and the one in the south-east corner, again, is heritage listed.

Apparently, a kookaburra sits on the cross every morning. With the sun going down the wallabies were out in their dozens along Memorial Terrace, and a family of babblers was foraging by the entrance. It was all very peaceful. Do visit.