A display of handmade poppies that was the backdrop for the Anzac Day service at the cenotaph at Wingham Memorial Town Hall drew some admiring glances and comments from the crowd.
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The display was created in 2015 in preparation for the Centenary of Anzac.
The idea evolved from the installation of 800,000 ceramic poppies in the moat of the Tower of London in 2014 as a visual commemoration of the Great War centenary.
Lyn Turner, Wingham RSL Sub-branch Women’s Auxiliary president, and Karen Bowen, treasurer were the women behind the work. Initially they thought they could create it all themselves.
“We started it off as a secret thing, but we needed help!” Lyn said.
The project became a collaboration between the Wingham RSL Sub-branch and the Women’s Auxiliary, aided by donations of poppies from members of the community and the Women’s Auxiliary.
Some of the people who helped work on the poppies were workers form Valley Industries.
“Some of the people from there really wanted to help, but they had problems with knitting and sewing. So we did some cardboard templates and we had some lovely felt and vinyl that was donated to us so they were able to cut out the poppies,” Lyn said.
The background ‘fabric’ of the display is heavy duty shade cloth, green in colour to represent Flanders Fields, and the poppies were made of acrylic yarn, all so that if the display was to get wet nothing would shrink.
The frames are made out of WWII stretchers which were sourced by the then Sub-branch vice president, John O’Keefe.
Originally there were 287 poppies on the display, one for each of the men from Wingham and the upper Manning who fought in the Great War.
Now there are more than 300 poppies attached to the display. The display consists of red poppies to represent the soldiers, purple to represent animals who have served and died in wars, and black, red and yellow for the Indigenous soldiers who died in the Great War.
“We’re extremely proud of it and we’re so happy that the community inspired us to do it,” Lyn said.
The display will be used for the duration of the centenary of the Great War, up until the commemoration of 100 years since Armistice Day in 2018.
However Lyn says there will be further ‘changes’ to the display as it will be further enhanced.
“The one for 2018 is going to be spectacular,” she said.