An anti-vax display has been torn down after it was set up just metres away from where an Anzac Day Dawn Service will be held.
The display, dubbed ‘Forest of the Fallen’, was erected on Sturt Reserve at Murray Bridge, in South Australia, on Sunday.
The memorial claimed to show photos and information of people who have been left with medical injuries or killed after receiving the Covid vaccine.
The display was set up just 400 metres away from where an Anzac Day Dawn Service will be held on Tuesday.
Several memorials have been set up around the country and some have drawn criticism after one person was forced to reassure friends and family they were still alive, after their photo was used on one of the posters.
A Facebook post showing the ‘Forest of the Fallen’ anti-vaxxer protest signs set up on a reserve in the SA town of Murray Bridge near the site where the Anzac Day Dawn Service will be held
The signs that were erected at Murray Bridge were removed just hours after they had been raised, following backlash.
Rural City of Murray Bridge chief executive officer Michael Sedgman told Daily Mail Australia he was not aware of the anti-vax protest and that it had not been authorised.
‘We respect the right for people to protest and make statements we certainly encourage any organisation to exercise those rights in accordance with due process and respect for the veterans of many theatres of war,’ he said.
Mr Sedgman had the orgnasiers applied for permission to erect the protest it would have been ‘considered on its merits’.
Murray Bridge Mayor Wayne Thorley said he respected the right to voice an opinion but warned Anzac Day shouldn’t be ‘hijacked’.
‘Anzac Day is about people who served in the military and their fallen comrades … I don’t think it needs to be the area and a focus for other issues,’ Mr Thorley said.
Similar Forest of the Fallen displays have been put up nationwide by those who claim the Covid vaccines have caused widespread death and injury.
A Forest of the Fallen was set up on Adelaide’s Christies Beach in March and the organiser, who only gave her name as Lorraine, explained its purpose in a YouTube video.
She said it was ‘a display of injuries and deaths relating to the Covid-19 vaccines in Australia’.
‘We are giving a voice to the silenced. These people out there are very grateful that we are now telling their story in a public way,’ she said.
Lorraine explained that signs remembering deaths are placed at the front.
‘We put a flower on each of the deaths and we hold a minute’s silence as a sign of respect in the morning after we have set up the display,’ she said.
One of the people featured on the signs is Barclay McGain, a conservative student activist who attends University of Queensland.
He was forced to come forward and reassure his friends and family he was still alive, fearing the sign might lead some to believe he had actually died.
‘Just wanted to say, despite the wishes of some folks no doubt, I’m not actually dead yet,’ he wrote on Facebook.
‘In fact, I’m actually doing quite alright at the moment – perfectly fine, happy and able.
This Forest of the Fallen anti-vax display was set up at Adelaide’s Christies Beach in March
The anti-vaxxer protest was put up 400metres from the site of an Anzac Day Service to be held on Tuesday (stock image)
‘If I was to be dead, I would hope I’m not buried somewhere random in South Australia, but I suppose you don’t get to choose these things either right?
‘Anyways, just thought I’d make that clear, cheers!’
Mr McGain, 23, told Daily Mail Australia that his post was a bit ‘tongue in cheek’.
‘I don’t think people actually thought I was dead,’ he said. ‘When I hear that term “fallen soldier” I think someone has died.’
Mr McGain said he had suffered myopericarditis, which involves inflammation of the heart muscles and increases the risk of heart attack, after receiving his second Pfizer shot in December 2021.
He said it has been certified as a vaccine injury by doctors and he has to go in for monthly checks to Brisbane’s Mater Hospital and the condition forced him to stop playing sport in 2022.
Australia’s vaccine watchdog the Therapeutic Goods Administration has reassured residents vaccines are safe.
Adverse reactions to the vaccine are rare, and occur roughly every two in 1,000 jabs.
According to a June, 2022 report there were eight deaths in Australia confirmed to be caused by a blood clotting disorder after they received the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Of the 64.4 million Covid vaccine doses administered across Australia, only 137,210 adverse events have been reported to the TGA.
The majority of patients experienced mild symptoms like fever, headache and a sore arm that did not require medical attention, or even have been caused by the jab.
Daily Mail Australia contacted Murray Bridge council and the organisers of the Forest of the Fallen protest for comment.
Forest of the Fallen protest organiser Lorraine said the signs are ‘giving a voice to the silenced’
