Drafted to draught

A one-day project is due to transform a old rusty shipping container into a tribute to the real workhorses of World War I.
But instead of honouring diggers, the challenge outside Pakenham Hall and Library complex at the PB Ronald Reserve will be to highlight the efforts of horses that were drafted to the frontline.
Mindful of the Anzac Centenary commemorations, this year’s Parklea Pakenham and District Agricultural and Horticultural show asked the South Eastern Contemporary Art Network (SECAN) to design a themed picture that would beautify the old rusty shipping container that stored all the show and events equipment.
While the troops and all the support personnel and their families will never be forgotten, organisers are asking that the thousands of horses, sourced from Australia’s farms and stables, deployed as an important part of the war effort, should also be remembered.
They worked this country’s farms, pulling wagons laden with local produce such as spuds, apples and milk to markets and left Australia to pull cannons, hospital carts and supply wagons across the battlefields of Europe throughout the war.
Their toil is to be remembered in the new design that will incorporate purple poppies which have become the internationally accepted symbol of remembrance for all animals lost in war.
After the conflict, the surviving horses remained to work on returning the war-ravaged land of the dead back into productive farmland for the living.
The public is being invited to come along and view this amazing transformation on show day Saturday 21 March.
The completed container is due to be on show at the Pakenham dawn service on Anzac Day.