newy.com.au – Newcastle has been chosen as the first stop on a national tour celebrating one of Australian television’s most beloved children’s characters. Mr Squiggle and Friends: The Creative World of Norman Hetherington opens to the public this Saturday at the Newcastle Museum, alongside a companion exhibition highlighting local talent, Murray Raine’s Marvellous Marionettes.
For those who might not be familiar with the iconic character, Mr Squiggle is a charming, gentle marionette from the moon with a pencil for a nose. He is famously known for taking random “squiggles” sent in by children and turning them into drawings, always sketching them upside down. Alongside his friends like Blackboard, Rocket, and Bill Steamshovel, he entertained generations of Australian children from 1959 until 1999.
Developed by the National Museum of Australia, the touring exhibition looks well beyond the famous pencil nosed man to explore Norman Hetherington’s broader life as a wartime entertainer, cartoonist, artist, and puppeteer. Visitors can view handcrafted puppets, colourful stage props, and behind the scenes material.
National Museum of Australia Director Katherine McMahon noted that this exhibition offers a wonderful chance for older generations to share television history with today’s youth. “Who can forget the man from the moon, aka Mr Squiggle, who entertained us with his upside-down sketches?” Ms McMahon said. “Now he and his friends, Blackboard, Rocket, Bill Steamshovel and Gus the Snail, are back to star in this new show. We are thrilled to be sharing this delightful part of Australia’s television history with the rest of the country.”
The Mr Squiggle phenomenon was a true family affair. Norman Hetherington voiced and built all the characters, while his wife, Margaret, eventually took over the scriptwriting. Their daughter, Rebecca Hetherington, became Mr Squiggle’s final on-screen companion, and the family’s puppeteering legacy continues today through Norman’s grandson, Tom. “My father was incessantly creative. He never stopped thinking about what he could do to entertain people,” Ms Hetherington said. “He was wildly imaginative but always with a deep sense of purpose and direction.”
The companion exhibition draws this national story back to Newcastle by celebrating the career of Murray Raine. Inspired by a puppet show he saw at Waratah Infants School, Raine became a highly successful professional puppeteer. He was mentored by Norman Hetherington, and the two developed a lifelong friendship. “Both Norman and I had a similar outlook to building and performing puppets.
We had a simple rule: make it fun,” Raine said. “The exhibition captures the fun of puppetry. Visitors to the exhibition will be impressed by Norman’s oeuvre and the legacy he has provided to aspiring performers in all fields. The puppets from my collection are different in style and created for a different type of performance, but visitors will connect with the creativity and evolving nature of creating and putting on a show.”
City of Newcastle’s Director of Museum, Archive, Libraries and Learning, Julie Baird, said that the exhibitions are designed to connect nostalgia with creative participation. “These exhibitions are exciting for Newcastle Museum as they are not just about nostalgic memories, they’re about joy and empowering visitors to explore their own creativity without judgement,”
Ms Baird said. “Mr Squiggle tells people that they can, and that spirit was what Norman Hetherington, Mr. Squiggle’s creator, passed on to Murray Raine.” Visitors will be empowered to explore their own creativity by trying a squiggle drawing experience inside the exhibition, while the museum will run hands-on workshops inspired by Mr Squiggle during the July school holidays.
Exhibition Details
- What: Mr Squiggle and Friends: The Creative World of Norman Hetherington & Murray Raine’s Marvellous Marionettes
- Where: Newcastle Museum
- When: Saturday, 4 July until Sunday, 1 November 2026
- Cost: Free Entry
