Schools throughout our Shire are being invited to be part of this project commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Armistice Day with a Poppy Art Display titled, ‘A Field of Poppies’. 

These will be displayed in shop windows during the period of October 16 to November 25.  

Shop owners have been approached regarding putting together a window display themselves, allowing their windows to be used by the schools, or allowing Garden Club members to display WW1 posters and the hundreds of poppies many are busy knitting/crocheting.

We are hoping to have every shop in the Main Street take part in this and have had a wonderful response to date.

An exhibition will be held in the Grenfell Art Gallery from October 16 to November 25, titled ‘Poppies For Remembrance’ which will commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Armistice Day and the symbolic significance of the Flander’s Poppy.

The Club is also looking for photographs of local people who were involved in WW1 to add to the display, so they can pay tribute to those who fought in this war. 

If you have any photographs of family members who fought in WW1 (only), we would be honoured to borrow them to scan for use in this exhibition. 

If you can assist, please phone Chris on 63431313.

 An Art Competition will be held in conjunction with this, with entry forms to go out shortly. 

This will be ‘Poppies on Canvas’ and will have prize money of $600.  

More information on this will be published soon.

Thank you to all those who have collected seeds from Paige and planted them. 

There is a list of over 100 residents in the Shire who have picked them up for themselves, plus extra packets for their neighbours or friends.

The MPS, Post Office, Motel, Masonic Lodge, Men’s Shed, Railway Station, Grenfell and district schools, as well as others, have also planted their seeds, so together with the Council gardens, the town and villages will be alive with an abundance of poppies, showing that the people of the Weddin Shire care for and remember those who fought.

About Armistice Day

According to the Australian government’s Cultural and Recreation portal, Remembrance Day, which was originally called Armistice Day, commemorated the end of the hostilities for the Great War, the signing of the armistice, which occurred on November 11, 1918 – the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. 

The Flanders poppy has long been a part of Remembrance Day, the ritual that marks the Armistice of 11 November 1918, and is also increasingly being used as part of Anzac Day observances.

During the First World War, red poppies were among the first plants to spring up in the devastated battlefields of northern France and Belgium.

In soldiers' folklore, the vivid red of the poppy came from the blood of their comrades soaking the ground.

In the literature of the First World War a new, more powerful symbolism was attached to the poppy – the sacrifice of shed blood.

After the end of World War II in 1945, the Australian and British governments changed the name to Remembrance Day as an appropriate title for a day which would commemorate all war dead.