SA: South Australian s gather to honour Don

AAP General News (Australia)
02-12-1999
SA: South Australian s gather to honour Don

By Tim Dornin

ADELAIDE, Feb 12 AAP - It was a day of sadness and celebration.

The day South Australians officially mourned Don Dunstan, the state's second
longest-serving premier.

With his passing South Australia had lost one of its favourite sons.

So they came, as he would have wished, to celebrate his life, gathering in Adelaide's Elder
Park for a memorial service that was playing to a packed house in the neighbouring Festival
Centre.

Some 3,000 people also stood, sat and sprawled under a blazing run, listening to current
and former politicians, community and Aboriginal leaders and members of Mr Dunstan's family.

The service was broadcast live on both local radio and television.

It was a diverse gathering -- office workers, tradesmen and women, housewives, grandmothers
and grandfathers, university and school students.

Buskers and street performers added colour and entertainment, especially for those too
young to remember The Dunstan Decade.

All the while, a steady stream of Dunstan fans converged on sellers of caps and shirts for
the Dunstan Foundation.

Meanwhile, many speakers remembered conversations with Mr Dunstan and praised his work.

And those who spoke of his period of great progress and reform got the loudest cheers.

"I'm a great admirer of Don Dunstan and I just had to be here," said one bystander.

"He was the best thing that ever happened to South Australia."

AAP tjd/it/de

KEYWORD: DUNSTAN CROWD

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.