Mount Lofty Botanic Garden Poppy Blitz

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (15:16): My question is to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation. Will the minister inform the chamber about the recent Mount Lofty Botanic Garden Poppy Blitz and the contribution that volunteers make to botanic gardens?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (15:17): I thank the honourable member for his most prescient question. It is one I would have asked myself, Mr President, if I had the opportunity. On Saturday, I had the very great pleasure of joining staff from the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources and volunteers for the 2016 Mount Lofty Botanic Garden Poppy Blitz.

I was up very bright and early and, despite the wet and inclement weather, it was heartwarming to see such a massive turnout of volunteers. Fifty-four volunteers, to be precise, of all ages and gardening abilities came together and volunteered their Saturday morning to make the beautiful Mount Lofty Botanic Gardens even more beautiful. The great turnout served as a reminder that without that generous support of volunteers the work of the Botanic Gardens—indeed, all of the state's parks and reserves—would be substantially diminished. Our volunteers are the heart and soul of what we do in the community, and bringing more people into our Botanic Gardens and our parks is an aim of the agency.

The Botanic Gardens of South Australia has held garden blitzes since 2011, making this the third event—they hold them every two years, I understand. The blitz has instilled a sense of pride in the local community. They provide an opportunity to volunteer support and contribute to the work of the gardens and a real sense of commitment and ownership. After several hours of planting, we shared a morning tea together to say thank you to the volunteers and to celebrate the success of the event.

The 2016 garden blitz is a little bit extra special because of what was being planted this year and why. The volunteers planted 7,000 red Flanders poppies, the symbolism of which I think most of us know. It is important that we reflect on it. Red poppies were amongst the first plants to spring up in the ravaged battlefields of northern France and Belgium during the First World War. They are actually early adapters or opportunistic plants.

If, for example, in a storm in France or Europe, an oak tree is blown over, exposing a lot of land and soil, the poppies are one of the first colonisers to cover the bare soil. Of course, in World War I and subsequent wars, I suppose, when those battlefields were ravaged by artillery shells, the seed bank of the poppies was brought up to the surface and, of course, subsequently they bloomed.

In soldiers' folklore, I understand, the deep red of the poppy represented the blood of their mates that was spilled on the ground. The sight of poppies growing during the bloodshed at Ypres in the western Flanders region of Belgium on 3 May 1915 led Canadian Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae to pen the famous poem, In Flanders Field, which many of us I suppose would have been forced to memorise at school. I will recite a stanza or two from that poem:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders Fields.

In Flanders Fields inspired the American professor, Moina Michael, to begin to wear a red poppy year-round to honour the soldiers who had died in the Great War. The poppy has since become widely accepted throughout the allied nations as the flower of remembrance to be worn on Remembrance Day.

The number of poppies that we planted on the Saturday—about 7,000—is significant because it is approximately the number of Australians killed in the French village of Pozieres in 1916, 100 years ago, during the Battle of the Somme. To put this number into perspective, the 7,000 Australians killed at Pozieres in less than seven weeks of fighting roughly equates to the casualties sustained by Australia over eight months at Gallipoli.

It is hoped that the poppies planted will be in full bloom for Remembrance Day on 11 November, weather permitting, showcasing a 170 square metre sea of red and an apt remembrance of those who have served this country and lost their lives in doing so.