From 11am to 3pm on September 17, Queanbeyan Museum will host an open day with the new exhibition to be launched at midday. The theme of this year’s History Week is ‘neighbours’ and the new exhibition celebrates someone who was certainly a good neighbour.

Harry Hesse will be well known to many of the older readers of The Queanbeyan Age for he involved himself in many causes and was a positive influence on the Queanbeyan City Council, meriting a room named after him in the community building in Crawford Street.

Harry was a valued volunteer for technical aid for the disabled, he was a house master at Karabar High School, he was a driving force in the Sister City relationship between Queanbeyan and Hatta /Minami Alps in Japan and in instituting the Peace Park in East Queanbeyan.

He also was involved in a number of community groups which reflected the concerns of the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s.  In particular he was concerned to counter the proliferation of nuclear weapons, both by protesting and by encouraging international co-operation. He organised many Hiroshima Day ceremonies inviting representatives of Japan and local church people, school children and politicians to join together to promote the end of the possibility of nuclear war. He initiated a series of seminars which involved the major nuclear powers in discussions of the nuclear threat. Harry founded the local peace group, Queanbeyan and District People for Peace, whose members took part in many demonstrations and wrote letter after letter to newspapers, to politicians and to embassies. Shirley Hesse, who will open the exhibition, supported Harry in his efforts as well as being involved in her own projects such as Meals on Wheels.

- By John McGlynn, president Queanbeyan and District Historical Museum Society