2026 Workers' Memorial Day Service 28.04.2026

VOID - Voice of Industrial Death

Families and community to gather at Pilgrim Uniting Church for 2026 South Australian Workers’ Memorial Day Service.

Our theme in 2026 is all about 'Memories' – the event will be marked with blue flowers, personalised remembrance candles and an ever-growing Honour Roll Call of more than 100 South Australian workers.

ADELAIDE, SA — Families, unions, government representatives and families will gather at the Pilgrim Uniting Church at 10.00am on Tuesday, 28 April 2026 for South Australia’s International Workers’ Memorial Day Service, when we will remember workers who died because of their job.

Key details

• Event: 2026 International Workers’ Memorial Day Service (South Australia)
• Date/time: Tuesday 28 April 2026, 10.00 AM
• Location: Pilgrim Uniting Church, 12 Flinders Street, Adelaide

Media advisory (for attendance)

WHO: VOICE OF INDUSTRIAL DEATH (VOID), families supporting families after a workplace death, unions and the community.

WHAT: South Australia’s Workers’ Memorial Day Service — a public memorial day service for workers killed at work or lost over time due to exposure to deadly substances.

WHEN: Tuesday 28 April 2026, 10.00 AM

WHERE: Pilgrim Uniting Church, 12 Flinders Street, Adelaide

VISION / PHOTO: personalised memorial candles, framed photographs, blue flowers symbolising living memories; the Honour Roll of workers faces play while families and friends light a candle to remember someone they have lost. 

INTERVIEWS: Andrea Madeley (Founder, VOID) media may have an opportunity to talk to 2 families of workers who have lost their young lives while working in agriculture - after the service. Please contact Andrea to arrange.

ARRIVAL: Arrive by 9.30am to set up unobtrusively before the service begins.

MEDIA RSVP: Andrea Madeley — 0417 819 745 | [email protected]

About the 2026 service: Theme - Memories

The 2026 theme honours the truth - that our loved ones do not exist in a date or statistic — they live on in shared moments, in familiar habits, in lessons learned, and in the enduring love that families carry - the reality that unsafe work becomes their punishment over a life time.

This year, blue flowers will feature as a symbolic presence. Blue has been the dominant colour across 2 decades that VOID has arranged the Workers’ Memorial Day services in South Australia.  In 2026, blue also represents the stillness in the mind where memories live. Together, blue flowers symbolise living memories — a reminder that memories live where love remains.

The service will again be illuminated by the rows of personalised memorial candles and framed photographs with a powerful audio-visual presentation remembering more than one hundred South Australian workers who have lost their lives.

In 2026, the service will also acknowledge the challenges families face; the message to the community is simple: please don’t forget the lives that have been lost and please don't close the door on grieving families. They are still here — learning how to live in a new life that is not of their choosing.

“Our loved ones are not a date or a statistic. This service is where we speak their names and show their faces, and where we remind each other that those painful memories will one day become an anchor to a timeless connection,” said Andrea Madeley, Founder of VOICE OF INDUSTRIAL DEATH (VOID).

About VOICE OF INDUSTRIAL DEATH (VOID)

VOICE OF INDUSTRIAL DEATH (VOID) is a South Australian support group founded by families for families following a workplace death. VOID exists to ensure loved ones have help to navigate the complex legal landscape following a workplace death – as well as advocating for safer work and stronger recognition of the lifelong impacts that workplace fatalities and exposures have on families.

Media contact

Andrea Madeley (Founder, VOICE OF INDUSTRIAL DEATH – VOID)
Phone: 0417 819 745
Email: [email protected]

Carmel Schwartz
Phone: 0415 288 730
Email: [email protected]

Proudly supported by: the South Australian Government and SafeWork SA; Unions SA; Pilgrim Uniting Church; Asbestos Victims Association (AVA); Asbestos Disease Society of South Australia (ADSSA)