A short story from Byron Bay's past.

[Nedman]

This is a short story from the book "Time and Tide" a history of Byron Bay. Printed in 1982. I hope you enjoy.

A LION STORY

AS TOLD TO JEANETTE HENRY BY MR. ALAN GILMORE AND MRS. GRACE FROST.

Alan and his sister Grace were the children of William and Mary Gilmore who came to Byron Bay about 1918. Shortly afterwards, a circus visited the town and Alan, a teenager then, went off to the circus.

The lion tamer, whether to fortify his courage or out of sheer disregard for his responsibility, was drinking heavily prior to the lion act. Whatever the reason, he failed to lock the cage and the inevitable happened — the lion escaped and raced around the tent, darting under the raised seating looking for an escape route.

The audience was gripped with terror, and most of its members shared the lion's objective to find an escape passage. Pandemonium broke loose and the screams of the audience convinced the lion that there was no future for it inside that tent.

True to his station in life the one and only police officer in the town tried to take control of the situation and appealed to the screaming, crying mass inside the tent to remain calm. In the crowd was a senior officer of the North Coast Steamship Company who reminded the officer that it was all right for him to order calmness since he held a revolver in his hand, but there would be a lot of washing on the lines in the morning.

Everyone was requested to climb into the highest seat and it took no prompting to get them there as most of them had already attained that vantage point. One lady in the crowd began to pray loud to God to save her husband who was about to return home from the pictures. All the children were quickly herded into the vacant lion's cage by circus officials and locked in — but they set up such a caterwauling that the lion made a desperate lunge to escape.

Now outside the main opening of the tent, three fellows were enjoying the performance whilst seated on a fence opposite the opening. The lion having spotted the opening darted outside and straight between the legs of the three gentlemen who promptly ducked for new quarters.

Many others fled the tent despite the warnings to remain inside and be calm. One of those fleeing was Alan Gilmore who raced home demanding to be let in and screaming all the while that he was being chased by a lion.

Some, however, did remain calm and were creeping around in the darkness (remember there was no town lighting or electricity) but with so many doing likewise, it was inevitable that they backed into someone coming in the opposite direction, whereupon both parties were instantly propelled with accompanying screams in the direction from which they had come. Their screams convinced others that the lion had been sighted there — but the figures fleeing in all directions did not enable the cunning to plot the site of the supposed lion.

One terrified aborigine was thankful for the skills that his lifestyle engendered, and he went up a telegraph pole with consummate ease and perched on its cross arms. He continued to occupy the pole which was situated on the corner where Temperley's garage now stands until the authorities were able to convince him that the lion had been recaptured.

Somehow the frightened lion managed to reach the then vacant allotment where the top pub is now situated. It squeezed itself into the tiny rickety old lavatory building, a feat which had to be seen to be believed, but nonetheless endorsed the state of the animal's terror. The old lavatory had an inward closing door, and when the lion got inside, someone managed to close the door with the lion's rib cage in danger of being squeezed flat. The circus attendants somehow extricated a rather frightened lion and got it back into the cage from which the children had now been removed by some forward thinking individual.

There were many people in Byron Bay who didn't sleep that night. Because of the distance between homes and the absence of means of communication no-one was going to venture out to ascertain the state of the nation.