User:Doc Ace of Klubs

Dr. Peter Harries was “The Boy from The Bush”

In 1950 Peter Harries was the Head Boy at Pinjarra Junior High School. He was the only 15 year old boy in 9th Standard studying for his Junior Certificate. He became a Junior Clerk at Pinjarra Railway Station; a Ledger Keeper in the National Bank at Waroona for 3 years, then joined his parents in their Real Estate and General Agency business. After 3 years away from home, mainly living in Kings Cross Sydney and trying to pursue a life in Entertainment, in 1958 he came back to Pinjarra to join his parents in their new Pinjarra Branch venture.

Peter established his own Dance Band and worked as a solo compere and comedian/singer. Plucked from obscurity in 1965 by the then new Channel 9 Program Manager Geoffrey Stephenson, Peter enjoyed 30 years as a top Perth Television Personality and Theatre Restaurant owner.

In 1995 he gained admittance to Curtin University as a mature aged student completed a double Bachelor of Arts Degree with Distinction; an Honours Degree with a dissertation on the so-called Battle/Massacre of Pinjarra and in 2005 was awarded a Doctorate in Social Sciences – History and Anthropology for his thesis being “The History of Commercial Television in Perth 1958-1990”

In 2014 he was awarded the O.A.M., for services to Television and Charity work in the Community.