Australian Circus Timeline
| Year | Event |
| 1768 | Phillip Astley gives open-air displays of horsemanship on Ha’penny Hatch, London |
| 1779 | Astley opens his Amphitheatre Riding House in London |
| 1833 | George Croft, dances on a tightrope in the Theatre Royal, Sydney |
| 1841 | Signor Luigi Dalle Case’s Foreign Gymnastic Company performs in Sydney |
| 1842 | Signor Luigi Dalle Case’s Foreign Gymnastic Company performs in Hobart Town |
| 1847 | George Croft opens his amphitheatre in Moreton Bay, today’s Brisbane |
| 1847 | Robert Avis Radford opens his Royal Circus in York Street, Launceston |
| 1848 | Robert Avis Radford opens his Royal Amphitheatre in Hobart Town |
| 1848 | John Quinn walks a tightrope on the vessel Junior anchored in Hobart Town harbour |
| 1848 | Golding Ashton, ‘British horseman’ performs in Radford’s Amphitheatre, Hobart Town |
| 1849 | Ashton performs in Hayes’ short-lived circus in Little Bourke Street, Melbourne |
| 1850 | Royal Australian Equestrian Circus [later Malcom’s Amphitheatre], opens in Sydney |
| 1850 | Taylor’s Amphitheatre opens in Adelaide |
| 1850 | Beaumont & Waller’s Zoological Gardens, a pleasure resort, opens at Botany Bay |
| 1851 | John S. Noble’s circus troupe, from Cape Town, performs in Adelaide |
| 1851 | Henry Burton opens his Royal Circus at Parramatta, visits the Turon River goldfields |
| 1851 | Young Aboriginal performers presented in Burton’s Royal Circus |
| 1852 | J. A. Rowe, from San Francisco, opens his North American Circus in Melbourne |
| 1853 | Travelling circus proprietors begin to adopt canvas tents |
| 1853 | From Sydney, Burton’s Circus travels overland to the new Victorian goldfields |
| 1854 | George B. W. Lewis opens his version of ‘Astley’s Amphitheatre’ in Melbourne |
| 1854 | Jones, Noble & Foley’s Circus visits Ballarat during the Eureka Stockade incident |
| 1855 | Ashton leases Malcom’s Amphitheatre in Sydney, opens as Ashton’s Amphitheatre |
| 1855 | Circus horses shod with legendary golden horseshoes entertain Beechworth |
| 1859 | The Wieland Troupe, from London, give the first colonial trapeze exhibitions |
| 1862 | Cassim & Abdallah, exponents of kalarippayattu, tour with Burton’s National Circus |
| 1863 | Melville’s Australian Circus tours the American mid-west |
| 1865 | The St Leon Family, a gymnastic troupe, opens at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne |
| 1866 | Cooke, Zoyara & Wilson’s Great World Circus, from San Francisco, opens in Sydney |
| 1866 | Billy Jones, an Aboriginal ropewalker, walks a high rope over Argyle Street, Hobart |
| 1867 | Japanese acrobatic troupes land in Melbourne, the first of many to visit Australia |
| 1869 | Stebbing’s Intercolonial Circus opens in Fremantle, the first to visit Western Australia |
| 1870 | Bird & Taylors Great American Circus inaugurated in Sydney, tours the colonies |
| 1872 | Chiarini’s Royal Italian Circus visits Australia, the first of three tours |
| 1873 | Hippodrome contest between Burton’s and Bird & Taylor’s circus companies, Adelaide |
| 1873 | Henry Burton and Robert Taylor form their Grand United Circus Company |
| 1874 | First visit to Australia of the French ropewalker Blondin, ‘Hero of Niagara’ |
| 1875 | St Leon’s Royal Victoria Circus organised in Melbourne, begins touring the colonies |
| 1876 | Wilson’s San Francisco Palace Circus commences Australian tour in Rockhampton |
| 1876 | Cooper, Bailey & Co.’s Circus, from San Francisco, opens in Sydney |
| 1877 | L’Estrange, ‘The Australian Blondin’ walks a tightrope across Middle Harbour, Sydney |
| 1878 | Henry Burton’s Great Australian Circus tours New Zealand |
| 1880 | Henry Burton sells his circus to William and Jenny Woodyear |
| 1880 | W. W. Cole’s Concorporated Shows tours NSW, Victoria and South Australia |
| 1882 | Wirth Bros Circus formed and commences touring the Australian colonies |
| 1885 | St Leon’s Royal Palace Circus tours New Zealand |
| 1888 | Wirth Bros Circus visits Noumea |
| 1888 | Wirth Bros Circus replaces its horse drawn wagons with rail transport |
| 1889 | Insolvency of Matthew St Leon, veteran colonial circus proprietor |
| 1889 | James Henry Ashton, veteran colonial circus proprietor, dies at Gladstone, Queensland |
| 1890 | Wirth Bros Circus engages ‘Happy Jack’ Sutton’s Wild West Show from San Francisco |
| 1890 | Harmston’s Circus, organised in San Francisco, opens Australian tour in Sydney |
| 1891 | Sells Bros Circus ships from San Francisco to tour Australia by rail |
| 1893 | With the outbreak of a colonial recession, Wirth Bros Circus ships for South Africa |
| 1893 | W. G. Perry and his family organise their own circus, promoted as Eroni Bros Circus |
| 1893 | Archduke Ferdinand, assassinated in 1914, visits Sydney, sees FitzGerald Bros Circus |
| 1894 | May Wirth, the world’s greatest lady bareback rider, born at Bundaberg, Queensland |
| 1895 | FitzGerald Bros tour their New London Company throughout Australasia |
| 1895 | Wirth’s Pacific Circus, under the direction of Harry Wirth, tours Southeast Asia |
| 1896 | Ellsworth L. Probasco, American horse trainer, organises his own circus in Dunedin |
| 1896 | Peart, high diver, critically injured performing in FitzGerald Bros Circus in Sydney |
| 1897 | The Flying Jordans’ Circus & Carnival commence tour of Australia in Sydney |
| 1898 | Wirth’s Australian Circus visits England, performs for the Prince of Wales |
| 1899 | Probasco’s Circus & Equescurriculum tours New South Wales and Victoria |
| 1899 | Con Colleano, later famous as ‘The Wizard of the Wire’, born at Lismore, NSW |
| 1900 | Wirth Bros Circus returns to Australia, opening in Fremantle, after seven years absence |
| 1900 | Henry Burton, veteran colonial circus proprietor, dies at the Dramatic Home, Melbourne |
| 1902 | FitzGerald Bros Circus divided into two circus companies |
| 1902 | FitzGerald Bros permitted occupancy of the Olympia on Princess’s Road, Melbourne |
| 1903 | Matthew St Leon, veteran colonial circus proprietor, dies at Oakleigh, Melbourne |
| 1906 | Deaths of the FitzGerald brothers, Dan and Tom, circus proprietors, only months apart |
| 1906 | Wirth Bros Circus take possession of the Olympia, Princess’s Road, Melbourne |
| 1906 | Bostock & Wombell’s Circus, Menagerie & Vaudeville Show tours Australia |
| 1906 | James Ashton & Walter St Leon circus companies combine to tour NSW and Queensland |
| 1906 | Billy Jones, veteran Aboriginal circus performer, dies in Sydney |
| 1908 | Mrs Tom FitzGerald’s Circus entertains sailors of the US Great White Fleet, Albany, WA |
| 1909 | Gus St Leon’s Great United Circus organised at Liverpool, NSW, commences touring |
| 1909 | Showmen’s Association of Australasia organised to represent travelling showmen |
| 1910 | Colleano’s Circus organised at Lightning Ridge, NSW, commences touring |
| 1911 | Mr Jack, agent for Ashton’s Circus, travels ahead of the company in his automobile |
| 1912 | May Wirth, Australian rider, makes her debut with Barnum & Bailey, New York |
| 1912 | Bud Atkinson’s American Circus & Wild West Show opens in Moore Park, Sydney |
| 1914 | Perry Bros Circus organised by James Perry, a son of W.G. Perry |
| 1915 | May Wirth & Troupe tour Australia with Wirth Bros Circus |
| 1916 | Sole Bros Circus organised by Elizabeth Sole, a daughter of W.G. Perry |
| 1917 | Amusement Tax imposed as a wartime measure by Commonwealth Government |
| 1919 | Wirth Bros Circus the first circus to cross the Nullarbor Plain by rail |
| 1920 | Holden Bros Circus adopts electric lighting with portable electric generator |
| 1922 | Excessive rail costs force the closure of Colleano’s All-Star Circus |
| 1923 | Holden Bros Circus, replaces circus wagons with motorised transport |
| 1923 | Bullen’s Circus commences travelling Australia |
| 1923 | Explosion of acetylene gas kills the proprietors of Sole Bros Circus at Blayney, NSW |
| 1923 | The Wirth and Ringling circus managements formalise agreement of cooperation |
| 1925 | Con Colleano, the ‘Australian Wizard of Wire’ in Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey’s |
| 1925 | George Wirth publishes his autobiography, Round the World with a Circus |
| 1926 | Sole Bros Circus tours southern Africa for three years |
| 1930 | George Wirth retires and Wirth Bros Ltd Circus becomes Wirth’s Circus Ltd |
| 1933 | Philip Wirth publishes his autobiography, The Life of Philip Wirth |
| 1934 | West’s Circus crosses the Nullarbor Plain in horse drawn wagons |
| 1936 | Ivan Bros Circus organised by Major Tasman Conder but soon fails |
| 1937 | Death of Philip Wirth, a founder of the original Wirth Bros Circus |
| 1941 | Death of George Wirth, a founder of the original Wirth Bros Circus |
| 1946 | Silver’s Circus launched at Kogarah by Mervyn King and the Hardie family |
| 1953 | Wirth’s Olympia destroyed by fire, the site later occupied by the Victorian Arts Centre |
| 1960 | Con Colleano gives final performance in the E.K. Fernandez Circus, Honolulu |
| 1963 | Spread of television and excessive rail costs force the closure of Wirth’s Circus |
| 1964 | Great Moscow Circus tours Australia under management of Bullen Bros Circus |
| 1969 | Bullen Bros Circus gives final performance at Parramatta, NSW |
| 1973 | New Circus launched in Adelaide and begins touring |
| 1973 | Con Colleano, tightwire artist, dies in Miami, Florida |
| 1973 | Philip Petit walks a tightrope between the southern pylons of Sydney Harbour Bridge. |
| 1974 | Alfred Percival Bullen, founder of Bullen Bros Circus, dies |
| 1978 | Circus Oz launched in Melbourne, a combination of Soapbox Circus and New Circus |
| 1978 | May Wirth, bareback rider, dies in Sarasota, Florida |
| 1979 | Flying Fruit Fly Circus launched by the Murray River Performing Group, Wodonga |
| 1984 | Circus Oz performs in the Los Angelos Olympic Arts Festival |
| 1990 | Circus Summit, a national circus conference, held at the Arts Centre, Melbourne |
| 1997 | Australia Post issues postage stamps to celebrate Australia’s circus sesqui-centenary |
| 2000 | National Institute of Circus Arts opens in Prahran, Melbourne |
Australia
Circus Timeline
1768
Phillip Astley gives open-air displays of horsemanship on Ha’penny Hatch, London
1779
Astley opens his Amphitheatre Riding House in London
1833
George Croft, dances on a tightrope in the Theatre Royal, Sydney
1841
Signor Luigi Dalle Case’s Foreign Gymnastic Company performs in Sydney
1842
Signor Luigi Dalle Case’s Foreign Gymnastic Company performs in Hobart Town
1847
George Croft opens his amphitheatre in Moreton Bay, today’s Brisbane
1847
Robert Avis Radford opens his Royal Circus in York Street, Launceston
1848
Robert Avis Radford opens his Royal Amphitheatre in Hobart Town
1848
John Quinn walks a tightrope on the vessel Junior anchored in Hobart Town harbour
1848
Golding Ashton, ‘British horseman’ performs in Radford’s Amphitheatre, Hobart Town
1849
Ashton performs in Hayes’ short-lived circus in Little Bourke Street, Melbourne
1850
Royal Australian Equestrian Circus [later Malcom’s Amphitheatre], opens in Sydney
1850
Taylor’s Amphitheatre opens in Adelaide
1850
Beaumont & Waller’s Zoological Gardens, a pleasure resort, opens at Botany Bay
1851
John S. Noble’s circus troupe, from Cape Town, performs in Adelaide
1851
Henry Burton opens his Royal Circus at Parramatta, visits the Turon River goldfields
1851
Young Aboriginal performers presented in Burton’s Royal Circus
1852
J. A. Rowe, from San Francisco, opens his North American Circus in Melbourne
1853
Travelling circus proprietors begin to adopt canvas tents
1853
From Sydney, Burton’s Circus travels overland to the new Victorian goldfields
1854
George B. W. Lewis opens his version of ‘Astley’s Amphitheatre’ in Melbourne
1854
Jones, Noble & Foley’s Circus visits Ballarat during the Eureka Stockade incident
1855
Ashton leases Malcom’s Amphitheatre in Sydney, opens as Ashton’s Amphitheatre
1855
Circus horses shod with legendary golden horseshoes entertain Beechworth
1859
The Wieland Troupe, from London, give the first colonial trapeze exhibitions
1862
Cassim & Abdallah, exponents of kalarippayattu, tour with Burton’s National Circus
1863
Melville’s Australian Circus tours the American mid-west
1865
The St Leon Family, a gymnastic troupe, opens at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne
1866
Cooke, Zoyara & Wilson’s Great World Circus, from San Francisco, opens in Sydney
1866
Billy Jones, an Aboriginal ropewalker, walks a high rope over Argyle Street, Hobart
1867
Japanese acrobatic troupes land in Melbourne, the first of many to visit Australia
1869
Stebbing’s Intercolonial Circus opens in Fremantle, the first to visit Western Australia
1870
Bird & Taylors Great American Circus inaugurated in Sydney, tours the colonies
1872
Chiarini’s Royal Italian Circus visits Australia, the first of three tours
1873
Hippodrome contest between Burton’s and Bird & Taylor’s circus companies, Adelaide
1873
Henry Burton and Robert Taylor form their Grand United Circus Company
1874
First visit to Australia of the French ropewalker Blondin, ‘Hero of Niagara’
1875
St Leon’s Royal Victoria Circus organised in Melbourne, begins touring the colonies
1876
Wilson’s San Francisco Palace Circus commences Australian tour in Rockhampton
1876
Cooper, Bailey & Co.’s Circus, from San Francisco, opens in Sydney
1877
L’Estrange, ‘The Australian Blondin’ walks a tightrope across Middle Harbour, Sydney
1878
Henry Burton’s Great Australian Circus tours New Zealand
1880
Henry Burton sells his circus to William and Jenny Woodyear
1880
W. W. Cole’s Concorporated Shows tours NSW, Victoria and South Australia
1882
Wirth Bros Circus formed and commences touring the Australian colonies
1885
St Leon’s Royal Palace Circus tours New Zealand
1888
Wirth Bros Circus visits Noumea
1888
Wirth Bros Circus replaces its horse drawn wagons with rail transport
1889
Insolvency of Matthew St Leon, veteran colonial circus proprietor
1889
James Henry Ashton, veteran colonial circus proprietor, dies at Gladstone, Queensland
1890
Wirth Bros Circus engages ‘Happy Jack’ Sutton’s Wild West Show from San Francisco
1890
Harmston’s Circus, organised in San Francisco, opens Australian tour in Sydney
1891
Sells Bros Circus ships from San Francisco to tour Australia by rail
1893
With the outbreak of a colonial recession, Wirth Bros Circus ships for South Africa
1893
W. G. Perry and his family organise their own circus, promoted as Eroni Bros Circus
1893
Archduke Ferdinand, assassinated in 1914, visits Sydney, sees FitzGerald Bros Circus
1894
May Wirth, the world’s greatest lady bareback rider, born at Bundaberg, Queensland
1895
FitzGerald Bros tour their New London Company throughout Australasia
1895
Wirth’s Pacific Circus, under the direction of Harry Wirth, tours Southeast Asia
1896
Ellsworth L. Probasco, American horse trainer, organises his own circus in Dunedin
1896
Peart, high diver, critically injured performing in FitzGerald Bros Circus in Sydney
1897
The Flying Jordans’ Circus & Carnival commence tour of Australia in Sydney
1898
Wirth’s Australian Circus visits England, performs for the Prince of Wales
1899
Probasco’s Circus & Equescurriculum tours New South Wales and Victoria
1899
Con Colleano, later famous as ‘The Wizard of the Wire’, born at Lismore, NSW
1900
Wirth Bros Circus returns to Australia, opening in Fremantle, after seven years absence
1900
Henry Burton, veteran colonial circus proprietor, dies at the Dramatic Home, Melbourne
1902
FitzGerald Bros Circus divided into two circus companies
1902
FitzGerald Bros permitted occupancy of the Olympia on Princess’s Road, Melbourne
1903
Matthew St Leon, veteran colonial circus proprietor, dies at Oakleigh, Melbourne
1906
Deaths of the FitzGerald brothers, Dan and Tom, circus proprietors, only months apart
1906
Wirth Bros Circus take possession of the Olympia, Princess’s Road, Melbourne
1906
Bostock & Wombell’s Circus, Menagerie & Vaudeville Show tours Australia
1906
James Ashton & Walter St Leon circus companies combine to tour NSW and Queensland
1906
Billy Jones, veteran Aboriginal circus performer, dies in Sydney
1908
Mrs Tom FitzGerald’s Circus entertains sailors of the US Great White Fleet, Albany, WA
1909
Gus St Leon’s Great United Circus organised at Liverpool, NSW, commences touring
1909
Showmen’s Association of Australasia organised to represent travelling showmen
1910
Colleano’s Circus organised at Lightning Ridge, NSW, commences touring
1911
Mr Jack, agent for Ashton’s Circus, travels ahead of the company in his automobile
1912
May Wirth, Australian rider, makes her debut with Barnum & Bailey, New York
1912
Bud Atkinson’s American Circus & Wild West Show opens in Moore Park, Sydney
1914
Perry Bros Circus organised by James Perry, a son of W.G. Perry
1915
May Wirth & Troupe tour Australia with Wirth Bros Circus
1916
Sole Bros Circus organised by Elizabeth Sole, a daughter of W.G. Perry
1917
Amusement Tax imposed as a wartime measure by Commonwealth Government
1919
Wirth Bros Circus the first circus to cross the Nullarbor Plain by rail
1920
Holden Bros Circus adopts electric lighting with portable electric generator
1922
Excessive rail costs force the closure of Colleano’s All-Star Circus
1923
Holden Bros Circus, replaces circus wagons with motorised transport
1923
Bullen’s Circus commences travelling Australia
1923
Explosion of acetylene gas kills the proprietors of Sole Bros Circus at Blayney, NSW
1923
The Wirth and Ringling circus managements formalise agreement of cooperation
1925
Con Colleano, the ‘Australian Wizard of Wire’ in Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey’s
1925
George Wirth publishes his autobiography, Round the World with a Circus
1926
Sole Bros Circus tours southern Africa for three years
1930
George Wirth retires and Wirth Bros Ltd Circus becomes Wirth’s Circus Ltd
1933
Philip Wirth publishes his autobiography, The Life of Philip Wirth
1934
West’s Circus crosses the Nullarbor Plain in horse drawn wagons
1936
Ivan Bros Circus organised by Major Tasman Conder but soon fails
1937
Death of Philip Wirth, a founder of the original Wirth Bros Circus
1941
Death of George Wirth, a founder of the original Wirth Bros Circus
1946
Silver’s Circus launched at Kogarah by Mervyn King and the Hardie family
1953
Wirth’s Olympia destroyed by fire, the site later occupied by the Victorian Arts Centre
1960
Con Colleano gives final performance in the E.K. Fernandez Circus, Honolulu
1963
Spread of television and excessive rail costs force the closure of Wirth’s Circus
1964
Great Moscow Circus tours Australia under management of Bullen Bros Circus
1969
Bullen Bros Circus gives final performance at Parramatta, NSW
1973
New Circus launched in Adelaide and begins touring
1973
Con Colleano, tightwire artist, dies in Miami, Florida
1973
Philip Petit walks a tightrope between the southern pylons of Sydney Harbour Bridge
1974
Alfred Percival Bullen, founder of Bullen Bros Circus, dies
1978
Circus Oz launched in Melbourne, a combination of Soapbox Circus and New Circus
1978
May Wirth, bareback rider, dies in Sarasota, Florida
1979
Flying Fruit Fly Circus launched by the Murray River Performing Group, Wodonga
1984
Circus Oz performs in the Los Angelos Olympic Arts Festival
1990
Circus Summit, a national circus conference, held at the Arts Centre, Melbourne
1997
Australia Post issues postage stamps to celebrate Australia’s circus sesqui-centenary
2000
National Institute of Circus Arts opens in Prahran, Melbourne
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