Blacktown staff and patients pause to pay their respects
More than a thousand red poppies adorned the Anzac Memorial Garden at Blacktown Hospital on Monday as staff and patients paused to reflect on Remembrance Day.
The solemn service at 11am on November 11 was an opportunity to remember those who have suffered or died for Australia’s cause in all wars and armed conflicts.
Remembrance Day dates back 101 years to the moment the guns on the Western Front fell silent after more than four years of continuous warfare in World War I.
The poppies at Blacktown Hospital were knitted and crocheted by staff and communities members for the 100th anniversary of the significant day last year.
Blacktown Hospital gardener Ian Dobbie designed the garden base and volunteered his Saturday morning to ‘plant’ hundreds of poppies by hand.
The red poppy has become a symbol of Remembrance Day as they were a common site on the battlefield of the Western Front.
Medical Imaging operations director Dr James Nol laid the wreathe at the base of the Aussie Digger artwork, dressed in ceremonial military uniform and acting in his capacity as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Australian Defence Force.
Physiotherapy head Ian Starkey read the commemorative address.
