WHAT child doesn't like the circus?
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Imagine pungent smells of sawdust, straw and greasepaint as the crowd roars. The show begins. There are acrobats, the flying trapeze and clowns, maybe even exotic animals. The excitement builds and, by the finale, the audience is laughing, clapping and cheering inside the giant canvas coliseum.
So, what's prompted my sudden interest in the magic of the Big Top? Strangely enough, it was a magazine about railways.
Shining the spotlight on a forgotten transport trend was the March issue of Australian Railway History containing a long article by Antony Roth titled 'Circus Trains of Australia'.
For decades ago, the travelling circus was everyone's entertainment outside of major sporting events.
Roth's article reveals there was a time - not so distant - when Australia had circus trains, not diesel trucks, criss-crossing the country for 80 years until 1963.
Wirth Brothers' Circus and Zoo was the last one. Travelling exclusively by rail, it finally pulled the pin, citing exorbitant transport costs (up to a third of operating costs) as a major factor for its closure.
And what an extraordinary business it was. Author Roth details this golden age of circus as an era when rail hauled up to 20 cages of wild animals, plus six elephants, 30 horses and five sleeper carriages at one time. This was Wirth's Circus on tour in 1906.
Circus freight never seemed to get any lighter, just different. Wirth's NSW North Coast Tour in 1934 required an express loco to haul six passenger carriages, while a second locomotive hauled 750 tons of cargo spread over 50 wagons stretching more than 300 metres.
Times have truly changed, however, with Stardust Circus, now visiting Port Stephens, reportedly being one of only two traditional circuses still left in Australia with performing lions.
But to learn more about circus life in general, and old-time circus trains in particular, let's hear from Tom Dumpleton, of Gorokan. He is secretary of Circus Fans of Australasia (CFA). The group still regularly produces its magazine Fanfare, which Dumpleton edits with wife Lea.
Dumpleton said that as a teenager in the 1950s he was "lucky enough" to spend two years travelling all around Australia and New Zealand with Wirth's Circus.
"Without doubt it was the most popular train in Australia," Dumpleton, now 81, said.
"Why? In capital cities thousands of people would turn out at the railway yards to see the train being unloaded. Even in small country towns, hundreds could turn up as most wagons were pulled to the circus lot by elephant power.
"On the road, our small big top fitted 3500 people and in Sydney and Melbourne the big one sat 5000 very happy patrons."
Dumpleton, who said he helped with the research for the railways magazine article, remembered when about 120 people and 100 animals lived on the Wirth's Circus train.
"We moved often, performing six nights a week, but never on Sundays. On one trip between Adelaide and Melbourne we had 30 shows in 29 towns in 30 working days.
"Everyone worked as a team. It was just like having a small town moving every day," he said.
"Besides shifting people and equipment back then, we had the animal performers, like seven elephants, five lions, 35 horses, two seals and two bears. Our travelling zoo had monkeys, tigers, panthers and chimps.
"After the show we'd get back to the rail yards by midnight after packing up tents and seating for 3500 people. Loading would be completed by 2am and we'd wake up about 8am next day ready to start all over again.
"Our most unusual show was returning from Western Australia and stopping at a small desert rail siding and unloading our tent next to the lines. We thought management was crazy, but that night all the residents from (the then) Woomera Rocket Range were bought in by bus to see the show. One bus got bogged and had to be pulled out by an elephant."
Dumpleton said contrary to some beliefs, circus animals were treated with extreme kindness.
"An ill-treated animal is a vicious one, fearful and therefore unreliable. Circus animals are treated as part of the family, not just as pets or property," he said.
"Wirth's Circus closed in May 1963, seven years after the start of television in Australia. It began using train travel in 1882 and continued except for in 1942-43 during World War II when most trains were reserved for armed services."
With no trains or motor fuel available, Wirth's was about the only show travelling in Australia. The entire show was then brought from Melbourne to Sydney in 32 days. Often travelling at night, it was hauled by seven elephants walking about 1000 kilometres in 32 days.
Meanwhile, Geoff Greaves, of Cardiff, has been writing about the circus in Australia for more than 40 years. The former NBN TV reporter even wrote a book about the nostalgia of Australian big tops, titled The Circus Comes to Town, in 1980. Devoted circus fan Greaves saw his first circus at age seven in a country town. Little wonder then he was elected the CFA's foundation Ringmaster in 1972.
In his book, Greaves wrote that circus elephants could be almost human. At one Sydney show, a legendary pachyderm called Alice was leading the herd around the track when a girl leapt out of the audience and into the path of the oncoming giants.
Greaves wrote that screams were quelled when amiable Alice calmly lifted the child with her trunk and handed her back to her parents.
Greaves also remembers when circuses operated out of Birdwood Park in Newcastle's West End before a road controversially cut through the land in 1973.
Publicity stunts were often staged to promote circus visits, he said.
"One novelty event was the elephant races held in the 1970s when the circus was at the old ISC site (now the Knights' stadium). The 'jockeys' on board in those days were the local Hunter radio stars," he said.
"And you know, the circus is now making a comeback," Greaves said. "There are 10 circuses touring Australia at present with visits by the Great Moscow Circus. Circus schools are also popping up everywhere."
All circuses had adapted over the years, especially since the rise of the animal liberation movement. No Aussie circus now had performing elephants, he said.
But as Greaves wrote: "It appears the circus will never die. Circus owners are quick to point out that while there are children, there will be the circus. They argue that grown-ups will always use the children as an excuse to go to the circus."