MICHAEL Lee remains on target with his bid to honour the thousands of young Australians who died in the Battle of Pozieres during the First World War.

The 100th anniversary of the battle that claimed almost 7000 Australian lives, including more than 4000 soldiers whose bodies were never found, will be commemorated this weekend with a series of events at the French village.

Among the highlights will be the official opening of the Pozieres Memorial Park, a joint initiative between the Australian-based Pozieres Remembrance Association (PRA) and the Pozieres community.

Mr Lee, vice-president of the PRA, said until now there had been no official memorial for all of the young Australians who died in the bloody battle and it was the association’s intent to ensure they were remembered.

The Kingscliff man and and his wife Lyn travelled to France earlier this month and since arriving have been busy preparing for the commemorative event.

Mr Lee is responsible for the installation of 7000 hand-crafted crosses and poppies, each representing one of the young Australians who died in the battle.

The crosses are being arranged in a pattern the reflects the Australian armed forces’ rising sun emblem. The installation is 88 metres wide and the longest ray is 45 metres long.

Mr Lee said while it was a mammoth task, a number of volunteers had joined in to help.

“Many interested onlookers who were visiting the windmill memorial came over to admire our work and many people also volunteered some time to use our mallets to help bang the crosses into the ground,” he said.　

“It’s good to see the project finally coming to fruition.”

The centenary commemorations will commence Friday with the memorial park to be opened Saturday.

Also on Saturday a service will be conducted at the nearby site of the 1st Australian Division Memorial, with the remains of three unknown soldiers to be interred with full military honours.

The Pozieres commemoration is part of a wider series of events marking the 100th anniversary of Western Front battles, including the Battle of Fromelles.

Almost 300,000 Australians served on the Western Front, where 45,000 died and more than one-third of those have no known grave.