Under the Big Top [Sharon Hollingsworth]

In the 2003 "Ned Kelly" film starring Heath Ledger a circus was bailed up and the troupe members were in the Glenrowan Inn during the shootout with police. I think everyone who has seen it remembers that awful moment when the monkey was shot and Joe Byrne's plaintive pronouncement about the "poor little bugger." The film was based on Robert Drewe's novel "Our Sunshine" and in the novel Jane Jones says to Ned "What a sweet touch, stealing a circus!" While this was a plot device to make the story more colourful, the "stealing a circus" bit could have become a reality if Ned Kelly had decided to do just that at Glenrowan as a travelling circus was said to have passed by. In the Royal Commission report, James Reardon was quoted as saying that the gang "..were going to bail up a circus that day."


There was this bit from "Ned and the Others" by Dagmar Balcarek and Gary Dean:

"About mid-afternoon, the four members of the Kelly Gang and the hostages alike watched, as Brenton & Taylor's Circus Group travelled along the main road behind the Inn. The suggestion to bail them up to entertain the hostages was declined by Ned,  who preferred not to interfere with them, as there would be too many hostages to look after."

Searching online (but having no way to research in books on the subject of the history of Australian circuses) I could not find any reference to a Brenton & Taylor Circus Group. There were no references at all to the name Brenton as regards Australian circuses, but there were references to Taylor. In the early 1870s there was Bird and Taylor's Circus. In 1873 Bird was no longer in the picture as a new partnership was formed resulting in Burton & Taylor's Grand United Circus Company. They lasted until the late 1870s. Then Henry Burton broke away and started Burton's Great Australia Circus which toured until early 1880 when Burton became insolvent. He sold the circus to others who kept the name for a while for promotional purposes. Around the time of the siege in late June 1880 most of the major circus companies were booked elsewhere or en route to and from places far from Victoria per the contemporary newspapers (but this could have been a smaller one with little advertisement). So it is anyone's guess which circus troupe it actually was that Ned decided not to bail up. Hopefully if anyone finds information in a book they will share with us to solve this mystery (also if there really was a Brenton in circus circles).

I saw this in the Argus of September 9, 1939 regarding Fitzgerald's Circus and the Kelly Gang:


"....An amusing story is told of Fitzgeralds' early days, a story that should appeal to us in these days of "appeasement." One day in 1880 Fitzgeralds' Circus, then only a small road show, mistakenly wandered from one of the main roads in the north-east of Victoria. The two Fitzgerald boys, leaving the circus waggons standing by the roadside, walked through the bush in search of a farmhouse to ask directions. Suddenly, in the thickest of the bush, they were confronted by four desperate looking men with guns. The four desperadoes were none other than our old friends Ned, Dan, Steve, and Joe - the Kelly Gang!

Now this was a very delicate situation, indeed, for the Fitzgerald boys. Eventually, after a lot of explanation, the Kellys were satisfied that the two circus performers were not police, and the situation brightened. Dan Fitzgerald, in fact, always after that described Ned Kelly as a "real nice fellow." But apparently he must have had some secret doubts, for he also said, "Just to keep Ned Kelly, 'sweet' I gave him as we were leaving a free pass to see our show should he ever cross our path again." Ned Kelly on a free pass! Could there ever be a more comical situation In
bushranging or circus history? But that, my reader, is what we moderns call "appeasement."


Meanwhile there were many other circus references as concerns the Kelly Gang. In "The Fatal Friendship," Ian Jones tells of someone's reaction to Aaron Sherritt's colourful flashy wardrobe "Who the h*ll is this -some advance agent for the circus?" Jones also tells of the "Grand United Circus Company" performing in Beechworth in December of 1875 and of how most assuredly that Joe Byrne and Aaron Sherritt attended. That one this must have been Burton & Taylor's.

There was information online of Ashton's Circus performing in Glenrowan. It was said that the gang travelled many miles to be in attendance.

In 1881 when the Royal Commission Board went to Greta the Benalla Standard reported that Mrs. Kelly said to them "I didn't know who you all could be; I thought it was a circus parade. "

In 1906 for the filming of "The Story of the Kelly Gang" a circus provided the horses and stunt riders.

And of course, in later years Ned's nephew Ned Lloyd, half-brother Jack King, and Wild Wright all were involved with circuses. MIchael Ball reminded me of this bit from "A Short Life" regarding Jack King's father, George (who was married to Ellen Kelly):


"He had a shadowy background. There were suggestions that he had fought in the Civil War as a sixteen-year-old and that he had been a trick horseman with a circus."

Maybe the apple does not fall too far from the tree?

Speaking of Jack Kelly, I have read in a book where someone with Wirth's Circus alleges that he travelled around the country (circa 1909/1910) with "Jim Kelly" who told him all about his famous brothers Dan and Ned. This would perhaps have been Jack (King) Kelly instead I think given the particulars and circumstances.  I will further lay out those facts and see what can be debunked in a future blog posting. Stay tuned!

Note: The blog posting mentioned above is now available at


http://elevenmilecreek.blogspot.com/2011/06/jim-kelly-in-circus-troupe-sharon.html