Back in the day, Huthwaites came up with a novel way to promote its food fair. Photo: Museum of the Riverina.
Check out these elephants meandering down Wagga Wagga’s Baylis Street!
Majestic elephants, part of a visiting circus, sauntered past the Council Chambers in the 1960s.
This wasn’t just any ordinary day – it was a clever advertising stunt by Huthwaites Food Fair, capturing the city’s attention and sparking wonder among all who witnessed it.
In those days, such sights were not uncommon as circuses often included animals in their parades.
Today, times have changed, and animal performances are rightly less common. Nevertheless, these moments remain etched in the memories of many Wagga locals, a testament to the vibrancy and community spirit that Huthwaites embodied.
Huthwaites was a beloved institution on Baylis Street from 1906 to 1981. From its humble beginnings as a trader supermarket to its evolution into an expansive department store, its presence and history touched generations of residents.
The welcoming local store used to have a red delivery pushbike that many kids would ride on and deliver groceries around Wagga.
The bike and many other treasured Huthwaites items remain in the Museum of the Riverina’s collection today.
Here are five more times elephants roamed the streets of Wagga Wagga.
Way back in 1881, Cole’s Grand Circus and Menagerie arrived in Wagga by train from Albury and formed a grand procession through the town, much to the amusement of a very large crowd following it.
The whole town turned out as a band played on a cart drawn by camels and four elephants brought up the rear.
As people from across the district flooded into town to see the show, there were grumblings among local merchants that the circus was taking all the business.
In 1934 a herd of pachyderms lumbering past the railway station made national headlines when they stopped to snack on a tasty row of trees.
The poplar saplings had been recently planted by the council in honour of the Duke of Gloucester.
Twelve trees were eaten and a number of others were damaged causing an estimated £10 worth of damage.
In 1947 a cricket match at Bolton Park took a turn when several elephants stampeded away from a nearby circus.
The game ground to a halt as the animals refused to leave the field and trumpeted their presence across the CBD.
When the elephant handlers did not appear as promptly as the players would have liked, several contestants gave them an earful while they eventually manoeuvred the beasts off the pitch.
Wirth’s Circus was based in South Melbourne where elephants were not just part of the show. Photo: RHSV.
At around that same time in 1947 a man presented himself at the Wagga Issuing Centre to request a new post-war ration card, claiming his was eaten by an elephant!
The man was an employee of Wirth Circus and explained that the coupon card was in the pocket of a coat that an elephant had snatched up and consumed.
In 1952 one of the well-known local Kendall family was saved by a passing pachyderm after getting bogged.
John Kendall, a cattle breeder from out near The Rock, was inspecting his fences when he hit a soft patch and sunk to the axles in the mud.
The Bullen Circus convoy happened to be passing by on its way to Narranderra and noticed Mr Kendall’s plight.
They quickly got Jumbo, the circus elephant onto the job, and soon had Mr Kendall’s car out of the bog.
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