Buckshot Bear

“TIGERS AT TOOMBUL”- QLD -1885 Morton Bay and more. Higgins had an eventful life in the Colony of Queensland. He kept pet tigers at Toombul, when it was then in the country. He ran a menagerie of exotic wild animals in George Street in the heart of Brisbane Town, suffered a severe mauling at same, donated iguanas to the Museum, and featured in a number of sensational court cases. In 1885, Higgins took advantage of the fact that the owners of the adjoining property at Toombul could not be located and applied to rent the property after paying the back rates. A delighted Divisional Board, seeing the rates debt disappear before its very eyes, was only too pleased to say yes. What Mr Higgins did with the land was unusual. Aside from erecting a des res, he kept wild tigers on the property. Not content with owning a tiger menagerie at Toombul, in August 1887 Charles Higgins decided to set up a mini-zoo with side-show elements in an allotment on the corner of George and Turbot Streets in Brisbane Town. This establishment featured five tigers, five dingoes, a cheetah, a panther and a leopard and a number of monkeys and snakes. Not to mention a barrel organ, a carnival barker and the occasional visiting brass band. Imagine being downhill and downwind from this attraction. Mr Arthur Jarvis, a venetian blind manufacturer was the unlucky soul who did, and he eventually became so distressed that he took action in the Supreme Court. Higgins’ staff had a tendency to burn straw and manure directly under Jarvis’ workshop window. Initially, Jarvis was loath to complain, having been reassured that if he did, Higgins would shoot him. Jarvis decided to take up his concerns with an employee, Mr Gain. The burning stopped, but the excrement was then left to lie around, and washed into Jarvis’ premises in the rain. Higgins’ staff also thoughtfully stacked the manure close to Mr Jarvis’ dining room window, until an injunction had them remove it. At one point, with his entire family laid low from the smell of old bones, Mr Jarvis glanced up from his sick-bed and saw a monkey on the wash-stand. The noise of the barrel-organ and the growling of the tigers when unfed robbed his children of sleep. A dead dingo reposed under their window, but the last straw was the tiger’s escape. On the morning of 21 November 1888, when Higgins and his employee Peter Bertram were cleaning the cages, a tiger named Jimmy got out of his cage and chased Bertram down Turbot Street, mauling him badly about the head. Higgins’ arm was badly injured when he inserted it between the tiger’s jaws to remove Bertram’s head. Both men spent some time in hospital. “I heard a scream and a roar, and looking round saw Jemmy after the man. The man was pulled down; got up again and managed to reach the middle of the street, and the tiger pulled him down again and opened its mouth to bite. A moment and the poor fellow’s head would have been cracked like a nut, but I jammed my arm between the jaws and shoved the man away with the other. Look at my arm”. In June 1889, Jarvis was granted an injunction and Higgins was ordered to remove the animals. Higgins had been hoping the Government would take over the animals to spare him the trouble and expense of moving them back to Toombul. To Mr Jarvis’ intense relief, Higgins shut down the menagerie, and his animals found a new home at the Queensport Aquarium. In 1891, Peter Bertram, the employee who had been seriously mauled by one of Higgins’ tigers was involved in the shooting death of a young boy named Willie Gain, son of another of Higgins’ menagerie employees. Bertram appeared to Court reporters to be intellectually impaired, possibly as a result of the severe head wounds he received in the George Street mauling. A lot of harrowing evidence was heard in the trial, but in the end, the jury could not agree to convict Bertram of murder or manslaughter, and he was released. Charles Higgins, after so many years of adventure and controversy, retired to live at Brown’s Plains. He was killed when his horse-drawn cart overturned on Ipswich Road outside Chardon’s Hotel in July 1894. PHOTO - A staged photograph. Higgins would never let someone murder his “babies.”

He's powering up from the overhead electrified wires

The Big Milk Carton, Melbourne Showgrounds

Victoria Police Officer, Melbourne c.1937 A Victoria Police Officer, wearing the cape and ’English Bobby’ style helmet directs traffic through the intersection of Flinders/Swanston Streets, Melbourne, on a cold, misty morning. The policeman is wearing the uniform that was adopted by the Victoria Police in 1877. It was adapted from the uniform worn by London’s Metropolitan Police and included the leather helmet, correctly known as a Wolseley helmet. The uniform remained unchanged until 1947 when a more modern style, complete with belted jacket and peaked cap was introduced. A white broad-brimmed summer helmet was also worn by foot patrols and officers on point duty.

Yep Alpo...give them a bit of a flick to get the excess juice off 'em....but don't go overboard and put 'em on paper towel as it will take to much juice out.

Group portrait of soldiers from D Company, 6th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR) Group portrait of soldiers from D Company, 6th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR), display the dolls and cigarette-cases presented to them by the South Vietnamese government for their part in the Battle of Long Tan on 1966-08-18. "The government of South Vietnam realised that this battle was significant and wished to award decorations to the Australians involved. But at almost the last moment, with the ceremony already arranged and those attending it already in place, word was received from Australia that the traditional policy of non-acceptance of foreign awards was to be observed. This was embarrassing both to the Vietnamese and to the Australians, and a compromise was reached. The Australians paraded and were presented with dolls in Vietnamese national dress, and also cigarette-cases and lighters. ... It says much for the often-maligned Vietnamese that they went ahead with the ceremony, persisting in observing the spirit of honouring their allies." Front row, left to right: Private (Pte) Noel Grimes of Stuart Town, NSW; Pte Allen May of Wynnum, Qld; Pte Bill (Yank) Akell of Townsville, Qld; Pte Neil Bextrum of Perth, WA; Lance Corporal (LCpl) Bill Roche of Narrandera, NSW. Back row: Second Lieutenant Geoff Kendall of Underdale, SA; Sergeant Bob Buick of Brisbane, Qld; Pte Geoff Peters of Yagoona, Sydney, NSW; Corporal Bill (Bluey) Moore of Stafford Heights, Qld; LCpl Barry Magnussen of Aspley, Qld; Pte Ian Campbell of Murwillumbah, NSW. (Quote from "The Battle of Long Tan" by Lex McAulay).

Or Beetroot, tomato and cheese sanga !!!

Love a nice curried egg sanga!!!

Don't worry......the Koala is just shocked at the spelling

@Alpo Not really sure Alpo, here's a link. There's a lot of controversy about the farming of these in the ocean because there's been a few instances now of mass escapes. http://www.mesa.edu.au/aquaculture/aquaculture14.asp#:~:text=The Ocean Trout is a,very similar to Atlantic Salmon.

Murray Cod, but its not painted perfectly. Trout aren't natural here, another Pommie feral introduction.....but there are a LOT of trout farms on properties now and places are also stocked. Ocean trout are farmed in sea pens.

The big Tennis Racket at Barellan NSW.