The iconic ‘man from the moon’, Mr Squiggle, has landed his rocket in Canberra, bringing along with him some family members.

Mr Squiggle and Friends: The Creative World of Norman Hetherington is open at the National Museum of Australia (NMA) until 13 October 2025.

Mr Squiggle was a popular ABC children’s television show that ran from 1959-1999, Canberra’s National Archives of Australia (NAA) said.

“Mr Squiggle, a puppet with a pencil for a nose, lived at 93 Crater Crescent, on the Moon. Each episode began with him coming down to Earth in his rocket,” the NAA website said.

NAA said Norman completed more than 10,000 drawings during the 40-year run.

Norman created Mr Squiggle in the late 1950s with his wife, Margaret, who wrote the scripts for every episode. Their daughter, Rebecca, was a presenter on the show from 1989-1999.

Rebecca was at NMA for the exhibition’s media launch on 3 July.

She told media that presenting on the show was a full circle moment.

“I don’t know that I aspired to it because I had worked with my father doing other puppet shows from the time I was about 12,” she said.

“It was really lovely, sort of a full circle of life to have one of the final jobs that I did with dad for about 10 years as being the presenter of Mr Squiggle. Because I liked working with him.”

She said the exhibition included items from Norman’s army life, cartooning and puppetry.

CD asked Rebecca what memories she had of presenting on the show.

“As a child I used to go down into the studio and spend time there just watching him work; he might be making a puppet or painting a backdrop or rehearsing a show,” she said.

“So that was always great fun, and I loved going to work with him. I worked as a puppeteer with him and then eventually worked with him on Mr Squiggle.”

She said Norman was the best person she has worked with.

“He was always enthusiastic about what he was doing,” Rebecca told CD.

“He always gave 150 per cent and never complained about anything and he was great fun to work with.”

She said it was ‘hard to believe’ but “exciting” to see the items on display.

“The museum has done such an amazing job of collating it and restoring bits and pieces that needed a little bit of attention, and they seem to love it as much as we do,” she told CD.

“So, I’m so happy that it’s found such a wonderful home at the museum.

“It’s really safe and it’s obviously going to be in that permanent collection as well.

“… In a way, even though there’s an amazing amount of items in this exhibition, there’s still more, so I’m hoping that people will get to gradually discover all of the collection.”

Not only was Rebecca involved in the process of the NMA exhibition, but her sons, Tom and Harry Hetherington-Welch, were too.

“It’s funny. Of course, when I was a child, puppets in the studio were tools of the trade, you didn’t muck around with them,” she told CD.

“But of course, along come the grandchildren and they’re allowed to play with all the puppets, and I think, ‘What’s going on here?’

“But I guess it’s meant that my youngest son, Tom, he’s really taken on the love of puppetry. I think watch that space. He’s definitely headed down that path.”

Tom laughed when asked how it felt to be the third generation of the family involved with Mr Squiggle.

“Did I choose to step on this path or did this path choose to step on me?” he told CD.

“Historically, especially in Europe and Japan, puppetry families are institutions and there are some families that have been going on for multiple centuries.

“Which, we’re not, I think in 15 years we’ll get to 100 years of Hetherington-Welch puppets.”

Tom said Norman, as a person, was a “soft man”.

“And a very whimsical one; His world was incredibly whimsical,” he said.

“All my memories are very much located inside their house and inside the studio that he had at their home, where all 500 puppets were.

“Mum always says that when she was a kid, the puppets were tools, they were instruments. And then when we came along, they were toys, and we got to play with them.

“Then all my memories were playing with Harry, playing with puppets telling stories and seeing what we could come up with from this incredible canvas.”

Norman died in 2010 when Harry was 12 and Tom was 11.

The exhibition features more than 300 objects from the collection, taking visitors behind the scenes to experience more than 90 puppets, as well as wartime artworks, colourful theatre props and costumes. There are also interactive elements to take part in.

NMA deputy director of collection and curatorial, Dr Sophie Jensen, said the museum acquired the collection of more than 800 items in 2024, when a small amount was put on display.

“We then set about doing all the work we needed to do to bring this exhibition to life,” she told CD.

“So, people caught a sneak glimpse of him last year, but this is the real thing.”

“I think people will come here; they will be surprised by what they see but they will also have fun playing with the interactives that we’ve put together.”

What are your fondest memories of the show?

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