The Australian War Memorial has unveiled display of 62,000 handcrafted, red poppies as the centrepiece of its lead-up to the commemorations of the official end of World War 1 on 11 November.
The poppies symbolically represent the Australian lives lost in the conflict.
Director of the Australian War Memorial, Brendan Nelson said night time lighting at the free event allowed visitors to access the display through to 10pm each day.
Dr Nelson said that between 1914 and 1918 a young Australian nation sent 414,000 volunteers to serve, fight and die in World War I.
“Almost 330,000 were sent overseas to face the horrors of modern, industrialised war,” Dr Nelson said.
“By 1918, almost 62,000 Australians lay dead among the blood, mud, and destruction of the trenches in Europe, the sands of Sinai, Palestine and Syria.”
He said the so-called Great War would be the first major undertaking by the newly federated nation of Australia — one that would forever change it and its place in the world.
“The individual sacrifice of these men and women and those who loved them, their devotion and duty to our country, is what gave us what we have and made us who we are,” Dr Nelson said.
“The 62,000 hand-crafted poppies that now sweep across the grounds of this sacred place are woven repositories of love and ennobled memory.
“Every single one of those men and women, who gave their lives for us, and their last moments to one another, is lovingly represented here,” he said.
