Documents on Aboriginal affairs, education and arts, missions, speeches and reports and other material generated in the administration of the Northern Territory, including policy notes, speeches, reports and radio talks.

 

Harry Christian Giese AM MBE (1913-2000) made a major contribution to health and education in the Northern Territory. He played a key role in the establishment of the Menzies School of Health Research, bringing together stakeholders, the NT government, the University of Sydney, the Menzies Foundation and the embryo Northern Territory University, to organise the now-thriving School meeting the challenges of living in tropical and arid regions, and improving the health of Indigenous Australians. Giese was a passionate Territorian, advocating and working towards self-government for the Northern Territory, and helping formulate policy and programs after it was won in 1978. He also became the Territory’s first Ombudsman.

A member of the Darwin community from 1954, he came to the Territory to build what became the largest department of the Northern Territory Administration, the Welfare Branch, and with fellow reformers help create the infrastructure of modern life from the ruins of World War II. He was the longest-serving member of the NT Legislative Council, from 1954-73.

Born in Greenbushes, Western Australia, Harry Giese was the descendant of a German family which arrived in Australia in the 1870s. Educated at the Universities of Western Australia and Melbourne, from 1944-47 he was Queensland’s first Director of Physical Education, after military service and a similar job in WA. He then worked in Canberra for the Public Service Board and in 1954 was appointed to the newly-created job of NT Director of Welfare. He served the Administration until 1973, in ‘arduous and controversial’ roles at the centre of Australian federal government policy.

This collection reflects his 50-year dedication to establishing and building Territory community organisations and working with fellow citizens to build groups ‘operated and managed by the community itself’.

Director of Welfare, Northern Territory Administration, 1954-73;
Founding Chairman, NT Committee and Member, National Executive, Menzies Foundation, 1979-85;
Member, Menzies School of Health Board, 1985-95, Deputy-Chairman, 1987-95 ;
Legislative Council of the Northern Territory, 1954-73;
Special Advisor and Consultant to NT Chief Minister and NT Assembly, 1976-80;
Chairman, History Unit, 1980-82.

Foundation President and Life Member of community organizations including Royal Life Saving Society, Carpentaria Disability Services, Royal Institute of Public Administration, NT Rugby Union, Wanderers Football Club, NT Historical Society, Darwin Probus Club.