An unusual incident occurred in Shepparton in November, 1916, when a mutilated and headless body was discovered.
A large crowd of onlookers arrived at the scene after the property owner, Charles Davis, found the remains wrapped in canvas in his dam.
Mr Davis went to his dam to investigate, after two people complained of the vile smell.
Initially, Mr Davis was dismissive, as he thought the smell was from a neighbour’s, Mr Patterson’s, property – there had been a dead sheep just inside the fence line.
Reaching the dam, Mr Davis could see a portion of a body wrapped in canvas. He then went to the police.
Three constables attended the site, with one using a branch to push the canvas to one side. A sergeant and doctor were then brought out.
The corpse turned out to be that of a bear.
Wirth’s Circus had been in the district a few weeks earlier, and a bear had died unexpectedly.
The bear had been beheaded and skinned.
It seemed that a couple of men had been instructed to remove the carcass, apply lime and bury it. They instead dumped it in Mr Davis’ dam.
Wirth’s Circus feature in another interesting local legend.
The story goes that there was an elephant that was buried in Numurkah.
According to some pundits, Wirth’s Circus was in Numurkah in about 1946 when a prize elephant died.
The elephant was buried in Numurkah – many, including my late grandfather, Bing Cox of Numurkah, suspected that the location is in Tunnock’s Rd.
There have been several versions of the story.
One has the elephant dying of old age, another under more nefarious circumstances – being poisoned.
A third has the elephant, referred to as Dumbo in some stories, being accidentally poisoned.
History is not always dry, but can contain weird snippets.
Trove is a treasure house of stories, some important, some macabre, some humorous.
Visit your local historical society and learn about your communities.
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