Opinion

Pics from the past | Wirth’s Circus

By Geoff Allemand

Jan 12, 2024

Greatest show: Wirth Bros Circus, souvenir booklet cover. Source: Lost Shepparton Collection. Photo by Contributed

The circus was once one of Australia’s most popular forms of entertainment.

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Then came cinema and television, and the circus all but died in standard as well as strength, not to mention the public’s view of how animals should be treated.

The circus has been coming to Shepparton since the 1880s. In the early years, it was St Leon’s and Fitzgerald Bros.

And from the 1900s, it was Wirth Bros that made many trips to Shepparton, and 17 circuses were travelling the country by the mid-1950s.

The introduction of television and the soaring rail/travel costs saw the demise of many circus companies. Wirth Bros finally dismantled its big top for the last time in 1963, after 80 years of thrilling audiences.

Other circuses to travel around Australia included Ashton’s, Bullen’s, Gill’s, Lennon’s, Perry’s, Circus Royale, Sole Bros, Alberto’s and the Great Moscow Circus.