Volunteers’ 62000 Handmade Poppies to Mark WWI Remembrance

Handmade Poppies to Mark WWI Remembrance

The Australian War Memorial will be covered by a sea of red poppies next month. This is to mark the Armistice centenary that ended World War I. 62,000 knitted and crocheted poppies will be spread across 4000sqm of the memorial gardens in Canberra. Knitted and crocheted poppies represent Australians lost in the conflict.

62,000 Red Handmade Poppies to Mark the Remembrance of the WWI

This is a fitting finale of a personal project started by 2 Victorian women. The simple project has grown, becoming a huge remembrance.

And on November 11, 1918, at 11 AM, the armistice came into effect, indicating the end of World War I. And the armistice had been signed by Germany earlier that morning.

How It All Started

The 5,000 Poppies project started in 2013. Fabric artists, Lynn Berry and Margaret Knight, crocheted 120 red flowers to lay at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance. They did this in honour of their World War II veteran fathers. Wal Beasley, Lynn’s father, was an Australian infantryman who fought in New Guinea. Margaret’s father, Stan Knight, was a British soldier who served in Europe.

And now, 5 years on, nearly 1,000,000 flowers have been created, by more than 50,000 people in Australia. And the project expanded to the wider community following the 2013 showing in Melbourne. 260,000 poppies were created by volunteers. The poppies became the centrepiece of the Melbourne’s Anzac Day commemorations.

It didn’t stop there, the 5,000 project is headed overseas. In May 2016, 300,000 red flowers were part of the world-renowned Chelsea Flower Show. There, it attracted the attention of the Queen and part of the Royal Family. In July of the same year, the red flowers made their way to France. They adorned an exhibition in the Australian Memorial Park to mark the centenary of the World War I battle of Fromelles.

From October 5 to November 11, the display will be open daily from 9 am to 10 pm. Every night, it will be illuminated and accompanied by a musical program.

Lynn Berry (and other volunteers) will begin ‘planting’ the poppies at the war memorial this weekend.