Field of poppies evokes stream of emotion

HOBART’S poppy field of remembrance has evoked an outpouring of emotion, writes REX GARDNER.

AN elderly man in a red tartan jacket stands alone, leaning on his walking stick and staring across Hobart’s poppy field of remembrance with tears brimming in his eyes.

I offer him a poppy and dig him a little hole as he slowly leans down, muttering, to slip it in the ground.

He is planting it for a second cousin who won a Victoria Cross in the ­Gallipoli campaign. And probably in remembrance of many others.

His cousin, he says, jumped into a trench full of Turkish soldiers in hills above the Gallipoli beach. He shot the first, bayoneted the second, shot a third and bayoneted a fourth.

THOUSANDS JOIN IN POPPY TRIBUTE

“Then the rest of the bastards ran away,” he says with a glint in those teary eyes. And he wanders off.

A few months ago when a few of us pictured in our minds what an artificial poppy field would look like in Hobart, it seemed an attractive way to create a focal point for the Anzac commemoration.

The idea was reasonably simple. Create a river of red flowing across the green lawns at Parliament House with 8141 poppies — one for every Aussie who died as a result of the Gallipoli campaign. But what we didn’t realise was the amount of emotion that would flow along with the stream of poppies as it snaked across the grass, growing by the day.

Ashlynn Weir, 2½, in the field of poppies on Parliament House lawns.

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Many of the thousands of people who have wandered down to the poppy field this week have had their eyes filled with tears as they planted in remembrance of someone dear.

One mother in her 40s broke up the small team of volunteers from Glenorchy Rotary when she planted some poppies and said tearfully: “This is for my son”.

She lost him 21 months ago in ­Afghanistan. The memories were raw and she shared her pain with those around her. She was very proud. But her sadness was palpable.

TASMANIA’S FACES OF WAR

A woman in her 30s worked in Baghdad as a medic. She helped on many flights bringing children and the vulnerable to safety. Her worst moments were treating victims of a chopper that was blown up.

Brimming with emotion, she told the volunteers of how hard she tried to save one Australian, but lost him. “Thank you for this wonderful way for us to pay our respects,” she said.

A returned serviceman, in his early 30s, planted poppies and told the story of parachuting into a war zone and suffering horrific injuries.

He didn’t walk for 18 months. But he walked proudly into the poppy field to remember his mates.

Two women flew in from Toowoomba and came straight to the poppy field to plant.

And what a joy it’s been to see throngs of schoolchildren come down and plant.

A dad picked up his daughters from Mount Carmel College at lunchtime yesterday and they planted for grandpa and his friends.

Toddlers hardly able to walk held mum’s hand as they planted one for someone they’d never know. Teenagers offered their gold coin donations.

All have been a part of something that grew from a very simple idea, into something we never envisaged.

Rex Gardner is CEO of Davies Brothers Limited, publisher of the Mercury.

Originally published as Field of poppies evokes stream of emotion