During 2019 there were a huge 23 Special events conducted at the Canberra Rotary Peace Bell during 2019 with over 4132 people attending.

This significant community series of Canberra events was created by a dedicated team from The Rotary Club of Canberra Burley Griffin (RCCBG) led by Michael Rabey — current President of RCCBG — to better spread the word of ‘peace in world’.

The most significant event was the Vigil for Christchurch when approximately 3000 people attended. The Peace Bell was struck 50 times in honour of those killed in Christchurch.

Significant Japanese events included a ringing for the Great Eastern Japanese Earthquake and a ringing to remember the nuclear bombing in the second World War of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Unfortunately, the planned Candle Festival event did not proceed due to the cancelation of the event.

The Chief Minister’s Rotary Peace Prize was again awarded at the World Peace Day event on 21 September 2019. This year’s recipient was Robyn Martin from Beryl Women Inc.

The second ringing for those women killed in Australia through Domestic Violence was again held on 10 December 2019, International Human Rights Day. In 2019 the Peace Bell was rung 53 times for each of those women killed.

In addition, the Rotary Club conducted 18 School tours through Lennox Gardens, including visits to the grove of trees planted by Pen International, Beijing Gardens, Nara Peace Park, The Hanoi Friendship Tree, The Chief Minister’s Peace Prize wall finishing at the Peace Bell. Each student attending, all 694, had the opportunity to personally ring the Peace Bell. 

During 2019 there were 80 posts to the Canberra World Peace Bell Facebook page. The total number of views of those posts was 35,588 or an average of 445 per post.