Wirths’ Circus at Lang Park
While researching the history of Lang Park, we discovered a copy of a poster for Wirths’ Circus, which used the grounds for their shows.
The lovely Belinda Smith saw the post, and sent us a wonderful photograph of her grandfather, Nev, with an elephant. She told us that he had been working at the Sam Brown Furniture Factory in Chippendall Street, Milton, in the ‘50s, when he visited the elephants during his lunch break.
Nev Smith with a Wirths’ Circus elephant, 1950.
Photograph thanks to Belinda Smith
I used to love going to the circus as a kid in the 1950s. Outside performances, the circus allowed the public to wander around and watch the animals being fed. Leigh C
My friend John Thompson, from Brisbane folk band ‘Cloudstreet’, wrote a fabulous song based on a true story of Wirths’ Circus coming to Landsborough. The song is called ‘Bill and the Bear’. Have a listen! Rebecca Wright, Gone Molly
In Brisbane, they unloaded in Roma St Goods Yard and the elephants towed everything to Lang Park. Bob D
Wirths’ elephants drawing the circus goods from Roma Street Railway Station, 1905.
John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Neg 1078
“The Wirth name has a special place in Australian circus folklore. Billed as Australia's own 'greatest show on earth', the Wirth Brothers' Circus was indeed one of the world's great circuses. The Wirths' Circus collection documents the family's involvement in the business from the 1870s until 1963.
The sons of a German immigrant, the Wirth brothers began their show careers as members of their father's travelling band. They established a variety troupe, developed their performing skills and began touring as a small circus. Despite the hardships associated with travelling in wagons throughout the rural districts of the Australian colonies, their circus grew rapidly. Philip and George Wirth had the vision to do conduct their enterprise on a large scale. They recruited star attractions from Europe and North America. Members of the extended Wirth family featured as artists. Their circus included a menagerie of exotic animals. In 1893 the Wirth brothers took the circus on a seven year international odyssey to South Africa, South America, England, Ceylon, India, Burma, Singapore and Java.
Wirths' became Australia's pre-eminent circus, travelling around the country by rail and visiting New Zealand regularly. The slogan 'Coming by special trains' created anticipation and excitement for country people. Watching elephants skilfully push and pull wagons from the railway siding to the circus site was a spectacle in itself. Wirths' Circus toured from 1880 until its demise in 1963.” The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences
In this clip from 1943, members of Wirth’s Circus and Zoo parade down the main street as a large crowd looks on. The parade includes elephants, clowns, performers on horseback and caged animals. In another shot, Shetland ponies are led by boys over a bridge towards the show ground: Wirths’ Circus in Sydney.
The Wirths owned a beautiful mansion in Coogee and occasionally kept some of the circus animals there! Peter H
Click here to see them at home: Wirths’ Circus at Ocean View, Coogee
Philip Wirth and his horses in Brisbane, 1903.
State Library of Queensland. Negative number: 419
Discussing circuses in any forum brings a mixture of nostalgia and happy memories, anger and sadness at mistreatment of animals, particularly wild ones held in captivity. World Animal Protection has written at length about why animals should never have been in circuses… 9 Facts about Animal Circuses you should know.
Of course, historically, before we could travel and see programs on television about the World’s curiosities, these travelling shows were the only way people got to see exotic animals.
It still boggles our mind to think of seeing elephants in Lang Park, and we thank Belinda Smith for giving us a peek into the past with this fantastic photograph of her grandfather, Nev.
Read more about the Wirth Brothers in this great blog from the State Library of Queensland: On the Road: The Wandering Wirth Family, and in this article by the National Film and Sound Archives Article and Footage curator, Tara Marynowsky, who investigates a preserved collection of 16mm home movies of Wirth’s Circus: A Look Behind the Big Top
