The Wild Australia Show

The Wild Australia Show reveals the remarkable story of a troupe of 27 Aboriginal performers recruited from Northern Queensland in the 1890s for an ambitious world tour that was meant to reach the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Although the international tour never eventuated, the troupe performed in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne before eventually disbanding.

Drawing on archival records, newspaper reports, court documents, and historical photographs, this book traces the performers’ origins, their experiences on tour, and the performances they created. Told with a focus on the performers’ own perspectives, it offers a powerful insight into Aboriginal performance during the colonial era and highlights how public performance could become a space for cultural resilience and survival.