Two Elephants Named Alice
Up until the early 1950's it was possible to glimpse elephants on the streets of Australian cities. They were circus animals. But an urban sighting was a rare thrill. Part 2 of 2
Hi Friends,
In 1851 an entrepreneurial sea captain William Charlesworth brought a group of wild animals from Asia to Australia. Bound for Sydney was an Indian elephant and its handler (known as a mahout), who were the latest recruits at the Zoological Gardens at Botany, the first ‘pleasure garden’ to open its gates in Sydney.
Elephants became a beloved feature of Victorian-era menageries and circuses established in the second half of the nineteenth century. Once in Australia, the poor elephant clearly wouldn’t be going home. Read part one of this series to re-acquaint yourself with sweet Jessie who charmed hundreds of thousands of visitors to the zoo. In this post let me introduce you to two other circus elephants who lived during the late eighteenth and early twentieth century. These Indian elephants were also girls; two Alices: Princess Alice and Alice. Not surprisingly they were and still are frequently confused.
Fun fact: Alice was a popular elephant name. This was probably due to the popularity of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. The book, published in 1865, quickly became a global sensation.
There were wild claims about the age of Princess Alice, 157 when she died in 1941, which is unlikely for an Asian elephant in captivity. She was a one-year-old when brought to London’s Regent’s Park Zoo in 1865 which means she would have been about 76 when she died. Princess Alice was a contemporary of the famous Jumbo, who was later killed in an unfortunate train incident in the United States. Princess Alice, came to Australia in 1905 to perform at the Wonderland City amusement park at Tamarama Beach formerly known as Little Bondi.
Wonderland City spread across two headlands sandwiching a small, very popular beach now known as Tamarama (or Glamarama, as some describe it). I can’t spot Princess Alice anywhere in the postcard below, but if you can find her, please let me know.
When Wonderland got into finanial difficulties, the Princess was sold the famous Australian Wirth Brother’s Circus.
Wirth Bros Circus opened in 1878. Despite hardships and rationing, it was the only circus allowed to remain open during World War Two. It survived until 1963. Founders Philip and George Wirth, were the sons of a Bavarian father and an English mother. Wirth’s Circus toured internationally until 1900 and for the rest of its existence in Australia and New Zealand.
After World War II, Wirth’s exclusively used trains to travel around Australia. It was part of the allure of the circus coming to town. There was one train for the animals and circus stock and another for the company. In towns and cities all over Australia, the arrival of the circus trains sent ripples of excitement as locals rushed to watch the pre-circus spectacle: the unloading of the animal performers and setting up of the big tents.
After the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in March 1932 six (unnamed) Wirth’s elephants led by a Shetland pony (also anonymous) crossed the bridge, paying a toll of two pence per elephant. Presumably the pony went free?
An unidentified elephant (possibly Alice as she was dependable and well-trained) was used in another publicity exercise, this time to promote Robur Tea. Some genius in advertising came up with the idea of an elephant’s tea party. Below are some of the press images. I haven’t located the advertisements or commercials yet, but I’ll update the post when I do.
Circus boss Philip Wirth lived in a luxurious hilltop mansion named Ocean View in Coogee, eastern Sydney, which overlooks the Tasman Sea. The house is still there today. Some delightful film footage exists from 1930, capturing the house, the Wirth’s and some of the circus animals in the grounds of the property. Australian-American actor Frank Baker, who spent his childhood in Sydney, shared his recollections of a night he would never forget1:
“One dark and peaceful night, I had just returned from active service in the First World War, still recovering from paralysis of the lower limbs caused by war wounds, with severe head-aches that interfered with obtaining any sleep at night. So I would often limp down to Coogee Beach and sit for hours on the deserted sands, as I found that type of therapy most soothing.
About 2.30 one early morn, I was returning from one of those lone vigils and headed for home. A light mist enveloped had enveloped the heights, giving the darkness an almost ghostly quality. Limping along the middle of the road, I was suddenly confronted by an enormous, even darker shadow bearing down on me on a direct collision course. I leapt wildly for the fringe of the road, where I watched the stately passage of the shadowy forms of six enormous elephants, each holding the proceeding pachyderms tail by its trunk, pace silently by my startled gaze. A single hooded, and equally silent human figure stalked by at the rear of the phantom column.” - Frank Baker
Finally the story of the end of beloved circus elephant, Alice. There is good film footage of Alice at the Australian National Film & Sound Archive (the text confuses Alice with Princess Alice). We don’t know why the elephant was forced to walk, but the first part of the film shows attempts to get her into a truck which makes for uncomfortable viewing.
Alice was an icon with a record of community service. She’d once freed a truck wedged under a tram more than three times her weight in Sydney. Wearing her harness, she pulled gently and incrementally until the truck was free.
By the mid 1950’s she was clearly slowing down. In April 1956. Alice fell from a ramp. The old girl lay on the ground unable to move. A younger elephant was brought over to get her back on her feet, to no effect. Eventually, a vet was called and Alice was put down. She had been a well- loved circus elephant who had served her masters for sixty-one years.
Her death - at a time when questions were starting to be asked about the circus’ use of wild animals and growing awareness of cruelty to animals - was widely reported all over Australia.
In 2012, Marrickville local historian, the late Chrys Meader described in a talk, the aftermath of the elephant’s death2.
“Alice was taken on a City Council truck to the (rubbish) tip, where she was buried in a specially prepared hole near the Vulcan's pit (an old brickpit). The workers at the tip did not want Alice simply chucked in with the rubbish. Alice was a character and there was more to her long life than just ending up in the giant midden that was Sydney tip. The RSPCA dumped dead animals every day at the tip and although they were covered immediately, residents wanted the practice stopped.”
In the City of Sydney Archives I discovered the Lord Mayor’s book of newspaper clippings for 1958 detailing the many resident complaints about the smell emanating from the nearby tip and confirmation that this was the final resting place of Alice the elephant.
It is interesting to note that the workers at the tip gave Alice her own special grave, even if it wasn’t marked. Today, the tip and the historic brick-pits of St Peter’s in Sydney are part of a beautiful green expanse - Sydney Park. I doubt many of the families who enjoy the park every day know that a good elephant lies beneath them.
You can still read many claims that Alice is buried in the grounds of Ocean View, the Wirth mansion in Coogee. I am confident however, friends, that the mystery of Alice’s resting place is solved.
I have only focused on elephants of Sydney, but I know there are fabulous stories and images tucked away in archives elsewhere in Australia and the world, of beloved elephants and how they met their endings. I will never forget the inquisitive family of elephants I saw in Kenya more than thirty years ago. They were majestic and beautiful. I pay tribute to these fine creatures.
Acknowledgements:
Sincere thanks once again to circus historian Mark St Leon for the idea and for putting me on the right track. His website is definitely worth a look. Mark also wrote the paper “Beaumont & Waller’s Botanical & Zoological Gardens, at the Sir Joseph Banks Hotel, Botany Bay 1848-61” which was one of my references.
Thanks to Ashley Kingston for alerting me to “The Frank Baker Letters” from the Randwick & Districts Historical Society. I can also recommend a fabulous (out of print) book from their library written by Philip Wirth himself.
Thanks to the State Library of New South Wales image archive.
Thanks to TROVE, the National Library of Australia.
P10 The Frank Baker Letters - Recollections of The Early 1900s. Produced by the Randwick & District Historical Society
Thanks to the City of Sydney archivist Naomi Crago for remembering she’d heard this talk more than a decade ago. She then producing a typed copy of Chrys Meader’s speech for me.
Fabulous article, Jane. Well done!
A fabulous story. Many thanks Jane. It reminds me of home where elephants are still revered.