By Mikayla van Loon
Since 2017 a display of hand knitted poppies has been capturing the attention of Lilydale.
Each year it gets more extravagant, with more and more poppies added.
Designed and orchestrated by Sharon Chuck, it is the collaboration of numerous knitters from across the township who bring the handcrafted memorial together each year just in time for Anzac Day.
“Most of those poppies that are there now are still the original ones that we did years ago,” Ms Chuck said.
“It was to start off to remember our local heroes and then it just developed into something larger.”
Ms Chuck said now all it takes is for her to hear a story for her to think “I can put that into poppies”.
The Creative Community Knitters sees Rhonda Burke, Pauline Fritsch, Lynn Whelan, Jude Haines, June Buck, Carol Snowden and Gillian Myring supply their skills each year.
The exercise of knitting all the poppies, which add to the story being told, takes the group of ladies the full 12 months.
This year’s display included two different locations: the centre of town at the Lilydale Cenotaph and at Lilydale Memorial Park.
Reusing the Australian flag and Lest We Forget display from last year, Ms Chuck said this year the focus was the story of a soldier who never returned from World War I.
“I heard the story of James Burns from Anthony [McAleer] and he told the story of a local boy that had gone to war and died,” she said.
“His father was a minister in Lilydale and I thought, we need to recognise that, hence why the soldier was done in the first place.”
That soldier alone was created from roughly 4500 knitted poppies, adding to what Ms Chuck estimates to a quantity of 17,000 in total for the whole display.
“Plus I also added Lest We Forget to Lilydale because I felt that it needed to go into the Main Street of Lilydale and there’s two soldiers holding on to the flag.”
Supported by Sharyn and Max Manning to help purchase the wool for the Main Street poppy collection, Ms Manning said what Ms Chuck does every year says the community remembers and recognises the service of those who died, and survived, war.
“These kinds of decorations and especially in the Main Street, because a lot of people pass through there, to me, it speaks of pride in the township and that there’s people there that love it to do that sort of thing,” she said.
The rolling project means Ms Chuck and the group of knitters have already started on next year’s addition, something she said would be bigger than anything they’ve done yet but of course she’s keeping it under wraps.
“It’s huge and it’s going to be stunning when it’s done because it’s something that’s never been done,” she said.
“It’s lovely to see it developing. I mean my garage is a workshop, actually.”
The reaction from the community each year, Ms Chuck says makes it all worthwhile and keeps her from “retiring”.
“People think it’s just wonderful. It’s the older community that loves it. For some unknown reason, I suppose, because of their fathers and their family, they can remember the war I presume but they seem to appreciate it very much.”
But as with all creative projects, the cost of the wool does add up with each ball costing $3, making 22 poppies and so Ms Chuck said donations of wool or money would be greatly appreciated to help her and the group of knitters finish next year’s project.
