Adelaide River War Cemetery Groundskeeper Maintains Graves After March Floods

Rob Thorne maintains the Adelaide River War Cemetery, which contains 435 graves and sits in a town of slightly more than 300 residents about an hour south-east of Darwin. During World War II, tens of thousands of Australian and American troops passed through Adelaide River after a major hospital was established there and Darwin was bombed.

The town later served as a headquarters for both nations' forces.

Floodwaters in March lifted sections of the cemetery fence and deposited silt and debris across grave plots. Thorne said the open fence created a risk of damage from pigs, buffaloes, and crocodiles. He completed repairs in time for Anzac Day commemorations last month.

Thorne said he has worked at the cemetery for seven years and knows many of the names on the headstones. Among them are unknown civilians killed in the Darwin bombing, including a woman named Daisy Martin whose body was recovered three days after the attack.

Vietnam War veteran Reginald Hedley Hilliar, re-interred in 2016, is also buried there. Thorne said Hilliar receives regular visits from locals. Thorne grows perpetual roses on the grounds and said he has received handwritten notes from descendants who travel to the site, including one woman who brought soil from her home in New South Wales.

He added that comments left in the guest book at the cemetery gate record visitors' appreciation for the upkeep of the graves and gardens.