STEALING 94-year-old Corry Van Duuren's Australian flag from the front of her Kooringal house may have been a thoughtless lark to the culprit, but the theft cut deep into the national pride of a family that chose to call Australia home.
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Mrs Van Duuren and her husband, the late Fred Van Duuren, migrated to Australia from Holland with five children in 1956 and all became naturalised citizens on Australia Day, 1962.
The family - which grew by another two Australian-born children - have been proud Aussies ever since, demonstrated by a small flag being placed on the front verandah of the house they have lived in for more than 50 years every morning and taken in every night.
To celebrate Australia Day on Monday, Mrs Van Duuren's daughter Margie Davidson and her husband Geoff attached to the verandah railing a larger flag given to Mrs Van Duuren by another daughter, Cynthia, when she left Wagga a couple of years ago.
Next morning, the flag was gone.
Mrs Van Duuren, who has dementia, was saddened to hear about the theft, Mrs Davidson said.
"We thought she would be angry with us because she had said don't leave it out there or it will be pinched, but she just said what a shame," Mrs Davidson said.
Mrs Davidson said she and her husband were disgusted by the theft.
"I thought, haven't you got anything better to do?" Mrs Davidson said.
"I am very understanding, but I thought, why not just leave people alone?
"I am sure it was not a malicious thing.
"They probably woke up the next morning and forgot they had done it."
Mr Davidson could not understand the theft, either.
"Stealing an Australian flag on Australia Day?" he said.
The office of Member for Riverina Michael McCormack has given Mrs Van Duuren a new Australian flag to replace the one that was stolen.
"Beautiful, beautiful," Mrs Van Duuren said as the flag was unfurled in front of her eyes.