If you fly over Fort Scratchley today, you will see a vast sprawl of red poppies not unlike what covered the French and Belgium battlefields of World War One.
On this day in 1918, the guns of the Western Front fell silent for the final time.
The war had left more than 10 million soldiers dead, many without a grave. It is a memory Fort Scratchley Historical Society vice president Bob Harper does not want Newcastle to forget.
[Reminders of war] are all around us but we become oblivious," Mr Harper said. "I hope many people will come to Fort Scratchley this weekend."
The fort marked a century since the World War One armistice with an appeal for hand-knitted poppies from right across the country five years ago.
About 2176 Hunter Valley servicemen died during the Great War. The Poppy Project aimed to collect one for each person.
"But 5000 turned up," Mr Harper said. "From all over Australia."
Some purple poppies were also knitted to mark the sacrifice if animals who died in the war.
The fort never places all of the poppies out at once, but they have been used many times since the collection in 2018 to mark milestones in war history.
Mr Harper, in his own view, wants new generations to know the sacrifices made in wars both past and present. He said the tangibility of the poppies was a helpful way for families to learn about wars across Australian history.
"It's not about glorifying war," Mr Harper said. "It's all about the sacrifices that everybody made. The soldiers went away, their families stayed at home and [had to] watch what was going on."
And there is no better place in Newcastle to learn than the fort. It was built to face over the ocean and Newcastle East in the 1880s. During World War Two, the fort's guns were fired at a Japanese submarine after more than two dozen shells were fired at the city.
That night, on June 7 1942, Fort Scratchley became the only coastal fortification to fire on an enemy vessel in Australia.
Once overgrown with weeds, the old military base now runs one of the Hunter's leading historical tours. The fort can be visited between 10am and 4pm on November 11 (Remembrance Day) to view the poppies or take a tour.
A Royal Australian Air Force flyover will happen five seconds before 11am. Flyovers will also take place in Raymond Terrace, Dudley and Tea Gardens.
