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Between 2014 and 2018 Australia will commemorate the Anzac Centenary, marking 100 years since Australia’s involvement in the First World War.

In 2015, there will be a large number of activities commemorating 100 years since the Anzac Gallipoli landing. From its association with poppies flowering in the spring of 1915 on the battlefields of Belgium, France and Gallipoli, the poppy has become a symbol of both great loss in war and hope for those left behind.

I had been teaching crochet in Fed Square as part of their Community and Wellbeing Program and presented the poppies project idea to Fed Square as a Community Art Installation.

At that stage they set a target of 5,000 poppies and Fed square offered space for regular workshops, plus a space for the launch display in November last year (2014) and display space for Anzac Day 2015.

Humble beginnings indeed. We set up a blog to keep the communication happening and was subsequently interviewed by Cameron Wilson (ABC Bush Telegraph Radio National).

It literally snowballed overnight from there.

We had thousands of hits on the blog with many people getting involved. We then then set up a Facebook group just to keep everyone linked and inspired. Regular workshops have run throughout 2014 and 2015 in venues across Australia, in libraries, CWA Groups, RSL Auxiliaries, Legacy groups, schools, special interest groups and community groups have also taken up the challenge and are running workshops and collecting poppies in many towns around the nation. A number of satellites have also partnered with the Project such as New Zealand and Singapore.

The initial target we set once we took the project to the crafting community was 5,000. We reached that total on 11th November 2013 for our official launch just five months in.

The final number has been in excess of 250,000 poppies for our display in Melbourne, with many more groups organising displays in their local communities throughout Australia.

What has been the response from the community?

In a word … MASSIVE.