Page 22 - The Outdoor Showman magazine July - September 2025

CIRCUS NEWS
Cirque Nouvelle
Acrobat couple Rebecca and
James Capener debuted this
show in WA in 2024, after years
performing on cruise ships.
They juggle, tumble, Cyr wheel, fire-
eating and high-energy dance, in July
school holidays, working one-nighters in
Queensland: Ipswich, Logan, Redlands,
Gladstone, Bundaberg, Maryborough
and Toowoomba. Cirque Nouvelle.
Acrobat couple Rebecca and
James Capener debuted this
show in WA in 2024, after years
performing on cruise ships.
Hendra Virus
A new Queensland Uni strategy
may be the key to fighting two bat-
born viruses that affect horses and
animals: Hendra and Nipah viruses.
A team led by Prof. David Watterson
and Dr Ariel Isaacs has identified the
first ever nanobody, one-tenth the
size of an antibody, small enough
to access hard-to-teach areas
of viruses to block infection.
Nanobody DS90, produced only
from camels, llamas, alpacas and
camels, neutralises the viruses.
Researchers at Universidad Austral
de Chile isolated it, using immune
cells from an alpaca named Pedro.
Hendra and Nipan viruses can affect
horses, then humans, causing fatal
respiratory and neurological disease.
Next step is to translate the research
into a clinically-ready therapeutic.
Lion attack
Steve and Steph Robinson’s Darling
Downs Zoo, at Pilton, outside
Toowoomba, reopened Tuesday,
July 8, after a lioness attack, before
it opened, early Sunday July 6.
Steph’s sister, holidaying NSW teacher
Joanne Cabban, aged in her 50s, was
inside the carnivore precinct as two
staff fed three lionesses. She was well-
versed in safety procedures.
A lioness inexplicably attacked,
and ripped her arm off.
A staff member used Stephanie’s
belt to stem blood flow. Paramedics
assisted, and she was helicoptered,
with a critical care doctor aboard, to
Princess Alexandra Hospital,
Brisbane, in stable condition.
Ms Cabban had been inside
the enclosure most school
holidays since Robinsons opened
the zoo, 20 years ago.
The zoo said the lioness was not
hungry, skinny, taunted or tortured,
and had not recently had a cub.
Queensland Office of Industrial
Relations investigated, and the zoo
closed for the Sunday and Monday.
Huge crowds lined up to enter
when the zoo re-opened
Tuesday, with car-park full.
Steve has been handling and
breeding lions as a circus, and
later zoo proprietor in Australia
and New Zealand for 50 years. He
said the lioness would not be
euthanased or punished in any way.
Former Deputy Prime Minister
and National Party Leader David
Littleproud on TV urged people
to support and visit the zoo.
Predictably, the US-financed
animal rights group, PETA,
called for big cats to be removed
from all Australian zoos.
Money flowing again
The day the Reserve Bank lowered
Interest Rates, ticket sales went up.
It was Tuesday, August 12, and the
RBA lowered official rates by .25
percent, from 3.85 to 3.6 percent.
TV and newspapers high-lighted the
benefits for home loan borrowers.
But for businesses like ours, that
depend on discretionary income,
(the exes that aren’t compulsory,
like food), it was a godsend.
“Up until then, it was just a
fairly solid year”, Shane Lennon,
of Hudson’s Circus, said.
“We noticed it. That same day,
bookings started to look up.
With any luck, this could be a
bloody good end of the year.”
New circuses
Every year, there are new shows
on the road. This year, they’re
everywhere:
# Brophy’s-Aurelia: opened
Newcastle Fun Festival in a new
Big Top. International performers
Gary and Caroline plus daughter
Benita and young grand-children
Brophy, good comedy and aerials.
Eroni’s Circus
Circus recently showed Sunbury for
the winter holidays after a seven
year absence to sell out crowds.
Lots of changes have been
made to the show lately.
Firstly our new tent imported from
Italy, it is larger than the old tent
and has no internal quarter poles.
It, as well as the other tent are
also available for any hire work.
A wire act, hoola hoops, fire
eating act and a spectacular triple
silks act are new to the show.
Joe has trained a new goat
act with four goats which
has been very popular.
Joe has also added rola bola to the
show, he also performs juggling,
whip cracking and illusion acts.
Solo trapeze, lyra, our palomino
horses and clowning round the show
out in a fast paced two hour program.
Kelly left the circus to live in Sydney
and now makes costumes and
showgirl headpieces which she ships
worldwide, she also designed and
made the new showgirl costumes.
Scandalous
You couldn’t count on it:
a tropical cyclone, floods, long,
consumer-nervous Federal election,
then snow and more floods.
After three months of very
limited, almost-no showing, Shane
and Nancy Lennon pulled the
pin on their cabaret-circus.
Steve & Stephanie
Robinson Darling
Downs Zoo
Courier Mail article
20 THE OUTDOOR SHOWMAN