Barossa Elephant Walk

First published on 'Gawler: Colonial Athens' blog on 25/01/2021

1933, world travelling Wirth Brothers Circus had just finished shows in Adelaide and Gawler, and on July 7th scheduled shows for Angaston in the Barossa Valley. 

During the Gawler show of the circus, spectators commented on how the elephants didn’t seem to wander far from the circus troop, and how, if they did, they could cause significant damage to a small town. These statements may have foretold future events! 

The following week, while Wirth’s Circus was in Angaston, one of the elephants decided he would go for a walk through the town. The lone elephant found himself in the garden of Mr Hentschke. It knocked over Mr Hentschke’s fences, then pulled up some of his roses. The elephant, not content with his destruction, then pulled a much-prized plum tree from the ground.
The elephant stomped its way through Hentschke’s prized garden, and once it had finished its rampage, took one of Hentschke’s wicker chairs from the front veranda and obliterated it, throwing it, in tiny pieces, across the front yard.
After its outing, the elephant returned to the circus. 

One has to wonder if the same elephant was the cause of destruction in nearby Tanunda, where several grapevines were pulled from the ground. This elephant was shooed away by workers and returned to its circus!

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2019

References:

1933 'ELEPHANT WANDERS OFF', Leader (Angaston, SA: 1918 - 1954), 20 July, p. 2. 

1933 'Wirth Bros. Ltd. Circus', Leader (Angaston, SA: 1918 - 1954), 13 July, p. 1. 

1933 '1-ELEPHANT POWER.', Bunyip (Gawler, SA: 1863 - 1954), 28 July, p. 4.