Item MM 111171 Digital Photograph - Holden Brothers Circus, Man Sitting in Shade & Girl Sitting in Sun by Circus Truck, Coorong, early 1930s

Description of Content

A circus truck in a dried salt bed, with a man sitting in shade and a girl out in the sun. This photograph shows Ernie and his daughter Melba Holden, of Holden Brothers Circus, sitting by their circus truck out on a salt flat on the Coorong, South Australia, circa early 1930s. This was the vehicle Melba was born in. Ernie is sitting on the running board and Melba is sitting out on the dried salt. The photograph was taken by Doris Holden, Melba's mother, in the early 1930s. Melba would have been 9. Melba remembers: 'The circus travelled Victoria for many years, especially the Western Districts, but didn't travel into South Australia until 1930s for the first time. Ernie was apprehensive. They had a lot of old trucks that were always breaking down. It was a lot more isolated, and in South Australia, the towns were a lot further away from each other.'