Yesterday at Poppy Headquarters at the East Malvern RSL, a couple of significant milestones were met with a quiet acknowledgement of “job well done”. Not surprisingly, I am feeling like it was a bit of an understatement (chuckling to myself here) … I expect that it’s because we still have a mountain of work ahead of us between now and the end of September.
So, I thought I would just quietly share where we are at with you.
We have completed attaching poppies to 62,000 stems for the installation at the Australian War Memorial (Canberra) for our Centenary of Armistice Day commemoration. Given that the installation will be in situ for five weeks, we have decided to create an additional 20,000 stems to cover repairs and replacements. (No we don’t need any more poppies at this time).
26,500 stems planted at Fromelles, France July 2018
We have completed creating, checking, repairing and packing our “poppy strings” for the stunning backdrop for the Centenary of Armistice Concert in Launceston in November.
Poppies on Strings : Federation Square Melbourne Anzac Day 2015
And, we completed another very large and very poignant installation (yet to be unveiled) for Victoria (watch this space for details).
Back to the start : Remembrance Day 2013 Federation Square Melbourne
We have also completed our planning for another three installations that we will be creating (also yet to be unveiled), and working on initial planning for more. Our aim is to use every single poppy that we have collected over the last 5 years in these installations (more than half a million poppies) … and while it is daunting … we are commited to the task. It is going to be BEAUTIFUL.
So, excitement is building as we count down the weeks (13) until we launch our installation on 5 October at the Australian War Memorial, which kicks off our stunning community campaign of respect and remembrance, and it is going to be a very busy few months at Poppy Headquarters as we pull everything together.
Again, as I reflect on the nature of the task we have undertaken within and for the community at large, I am reminded that it is an incredible privilege to be doing this work in honour of our servicemen and women, their families and their communities … past, present and future.
LEST WE FORGET
5000 POPPIES 
What a wonderful tribute you have created. I was pleased to contribute some grey, red and white poppies in memory of the nurses who gave their lives either on the battle field and later who died of the dreaded “Spanish Flu”
You have been an inspiration. Thanks.