Page 9 - The Outdoor Showman July-September 2020

The Show Train, 1956
As soon as the Sydney Show is over some 700 or so Show-people start making their way on the grand swing through Queensland.
Majority travel by special train called the Showmen’s Train.
It consists of anything up to 7 divisions.
Wirth’s Circus often use another 2 divisions for their own special gear.
The starting point for this train was Clapham Junction just outside Ipswich, 30miles west of Brisbane.
Outstanding personality of this Northern Tour was Ron Lissner, where he would organise to load the train. He was the man in charge of the immense movement. He took over the management of the Showmen’s Train in 1947 and has
carried on since.
The train was first started in 1936 to carry those Showmen who could not cope with the rough roads of the Bruce Hwy of Northern Queensland.
Showmen make their own bookings on the train at special rates and since 1936, the size of the train ‘which is really a number of trains’ grew rapidly.
In 1955 however, fares were increased and Showmen’s bookings dropped
off this last year (1956) because of this.
Few Australian’s realise that in our country we have the greatest show movement on earth, bigger even than the trains of the combined Circus’s of Ringling, Barnum and Bailey, in America which is considered the home of the biggest.
This massive movement occurs every winter in Queensland when Sideshow Alley and the tent Vaudeville Shows of Max Reddy, Mrs. Sorlie and MacKay as well as Worth Circus, head for the warmer climate up North to fill in time until Brisbane Exhibition comes around in early-August.
Other hardy Showmen travel by road, towing caravans. Their vehicles are continually bashed over the Bruce Hwy horror stretches as they race against the rising flood waters of the Burdekin and other main rivers to make it to the next town.
MAN 7
THE OUTDOOR SHOW
Bruce Highway heading north, 1954
Bruce Highway heading north, 1954