Ninety-two-year-old World War II veteran Don Haggarty just happened upon the official opening on Friday of a carpet of poppies installed in the Parliament House forecourt to mark the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice, ending World War I.
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The former navy man rested his walking frame in a break between the 270,000 hand-made poppies and contemplated the sight.
"It's lovely,'' he said.
"My dad was in the First World War, a bugler in the Light Horse. He came home, but he was a mess.''
The poppies honour both him and his father - all the Australian men and women who served and sacrificed across wars, conflicts and peace-keeping operations.
Mr Haggarty was visiting Canberra from Melbourne with his family, including son Chris who was moved as he imagined people across Australia crocheting or knitting the individual poppies around their kitchen table or perhaps in front of a fire and the television.
"It was something everyday Australians could be involved in,'' he said.
The poppies had been lovingly crafted in shades of red but also in white, for the nurses lost in battle, or purple for the animals who also died in warfare.
The display visually connects with the 62,000 poppies installed at the Australian War Memorial, representing every Australian life lost in the First World War.
On Saturday, the eve of Remembrance Day, a beam of light will also be directed from the War Memorial down Anzac Parade, across the lake, to Parliament House "symbolising the deep connection between Parliament, where decisions are taken to involve Australians in war, and the Memorial, where that service and sacrifice are recognised''.
The forecourt poppy design is a collaboration by sisters-in-law Lynn Berry and Margaret Knight, from the 5000 Poppies project, and landscape architect Phillip Johnson. Each poppy was connected to a net running down the forecourt, volunteers fixing them, even in the torrential rain of last Wednesday.
Mrs Berry and Mrs Knight started the poppy movement by setting out to crochet 120 red poppies in 2013 in honour of their fathers who had served in World War II. An estimated 1 million poppies have since been crafted by people around the world, for displays not only in Australia, but also England and France.
Mrs Knight said the poppies were "a red thread that binds us together'' and the eagerness of people to make their own was "a testament to the depth of feeling towards the service and sacrifice of our service men and women''.
Mr Johnson said the poppies connected current generations with those who lost their lives in war.
"Connections are what this project is all about,'' he said.
Speaker Tony Smith reminded the crowd at the opening of the significance of the poppies, which defiantly grew on the "bleak and barren'' battlefields of World War I.
The poppies, he said, represented "the bloodshed on the battlefield and the new life that can arise out of even the most awful destruction''.
Senate president Senator Scott Ryan, with his seven-year-old son Nick, dignitaries and visiting school children from the Kapooka Public, Tarcutta Public, The Grange at Minto and Uranquinty Public added more poppies to the carpet.
Senator Ryan said it was another tribute to the men and women who fought to defend liberties often taken for granted and also debated in the building of which they adorned.
The forecourt poppies are on display at Parliament House until November 18. Another vast display of poppies in the Marble Foyer inside Parliament House will be on display until February 3. Also open until February 3 at Parliament House are the art exhibitions, Lest We Forget and From War.
