Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This black-and-white clip shows the arrival in town of the Wirth Brothers Circus. Footage is included of the circus animals and equipment being offloaded from the circus train, children hanging over a fence to watch the procession as it travels through town and elephants hauling heavy equipment to the circus lot where a team of men constructs and erects the 'big top’. The elaborate and heavy work required to erect the huge canvas tent is shown in the film and explained in the commentary. A voice-over and a musical track dramatise the footage.

Educational value points

• The clip conveys something of the excitement generated by the arrival of a circus in town as would have been experienced by communities all around Australia, especially between the 1850s and the introduction of television in the 1950s. The circus brought diverse forms of family entertainment and the allure of the exotic to isolated communities before cinema, television and other forms of entertainment were widely available.

• The parade through the streets seen in the clip was a calculated part of a publicity campaign to ensure audience attendance during the circus’s brief visit. Two or three weeks prior to the circus’s arrival circus personnel would arrive in town to put up posters advertising the show. The arrival of the circus train and the parade of animals and performers through the streets to the showground raised still further the expectations of prospective audience members.

• Until it disbanded in the 1960s the Wirth Brothers Circus had its own train, shown and described in the clip, in the tradition of a 19th-century US company, the Barnum and Bailey Circus. The circus train used by the Wirth Brothers was adopted in 1889 to replace the wagons and horses that had been the previous means of transportation. The loading and unloading of the trains, assisted by circus elephants, was in itself a great attraction for the many onlookers.

• The clip indicates the considerable effort, logistical efficiency and cost required to transport a travelling circus. The Wirth Brothers Circus had a large well-trained workforce of riggers and circus hands, and when touring the world at the height of its success in the 1890s it had to transport 10 elephants, 40 horses, 14 cages of wild animals and 8 tents, the largest seating 3,000 people. The cost of transportation contributed to the demise of many travelling circuses.

• Circuses traditionally perform in a large tent or 'big top’, and canvas tents such as the one shown preceded today’s modern plastic circus tents. The early tents were cumbersome to erect and were supported by huge wooden tent posts and rope pulleys. The canvas was brushed with boiling paraffin oil and beeswax to make it waterproof. The tent traditionally enabled circuses to perform in regional towns that had open space but no building large enough for the show.

• The Wirth Brothers Circus was one of Australia’s largest and most successful circuses, and it is shown at a time when its fortunes were rising again in the prosperous period after the Second World War. The Circus declined with the advent of television and in 1963 it was disbanded after 83 years of performance.

This clip starts approximately 2 minutes into the documentary.

We see footage of the circus train arriving, and the task of unloading. Elephants and ponies are guided out of their carriages. The procession travels through the town amid crowds of children. Elephants pull the carriages to the lot. Many men work to erect the big top. Whimsical circus music plays.
Narrator Many hands make light work. There’s plenty to do, and only a limited time in which to do it. The ponies are glad to leave the train, anxious to stretch legs. The pole is the first of the haul cleared. The pulling power of the ponderous pachyderm. Once the wagon has left the railhead, the journey to the lot begins, through the town. Who doesn’t thrill to the sight – the wonderful procession of the circus? For the children, here is something they have been waiting weeks to see, though for the moment, school’s forgotten. The elephant train, with its unusual cargo. These carriages contain the lions, the monkeys and the other trained animals, all on their way to the lot, that piece of land that will be the centre of the star-spangled show. At the lot the measuring goes on, for the big top must go up as soon as the poles and the canvas arrive.

Now that the equipment is here, the workhands spring to it. Hurry up, men! The time is moving, and there’s a show to go on soon. Carrying the key pole. That’s a heavy hunk of wood, and it takes a lot of us to carry it. And it’s no easy task to lower that log to the ground. These poles are as heavy as a motorcar, and they have to be strong – strong enough to hold the big top. To support the huge tent, stakes are driven into the ground. The rhythm of men with hammers. Now, all is in readiness to haul the key poles upright. Every man must pull his weight, and once it’s under way, then it’s wise to keep clear. Any slip now – and men could be killed. It’s a case of ‘easy does it’. The key poles are up, so the work can go ahead. Out comes the canvas, the roofing for the big top. The canvas is carried to its position and then quickly unfolded. When the layout is completed, it’s laced together and it’s important to tie it well as it will have to withstand every kind of weather. The side poles are put in all the way round, and then all hands now – haul away, and up she goes. The big top. It’s not exactly a camping tent, so everyone must lend a hand.