After knitting 300 poppies for Bega Valley Shire Council’s Anzac Day commemoration, Doreen Elliott OAM decided she wanted to do something for her home town of Bermagui.

So she knitted 19 more poppies, attached them to granite and last week placed them on the 19 graves belonging to WW1 service people in the town’s cemetery. 

“It was a real pleasure, because I’m really appreciative of what our soldiers did for us,” Ms Elliott said. 

“I don’t just mean the ones from World War 1, I mean all our soldiers, like in Korea, and even the soldiers who are overseas now.” 

Although Ms Elliott now lives in Bega, she spent most of her life in Bermagui and knew most of the WW1 veterans she made poppies for.

She was particularly close to the St Hill brothers Les, Stan and Leo (aka Bill), and described them as a “lovely family”.

Les was her neighbour for many years who was a “real gentleman” and used to own the post office in town. 

“It was really through the St Hills that I thought I needed to do something,” Ms Elliott said.

“We called them Uncle Les and Uncle Bill because that was the way we were brought up.” 

She was assisted in finding the graves of the WW1 service people by Bermagui RSL sub-branch president Neville Staehr and secretary Roy Davies. 

Mr Davies said the graves belonged to locals as well as some who settled in Bermagui later in their lives.

The service people were mostly males with one woman who served as a nurse in the war.  

Ms Elliott has a strong history of charitable endeavours, as she received an OAM in 2000 for volunteer service.

“I just like doing things for others,” she said.