IT’S IN THE VEINS – AND THE FAMILY By Melissa Walsh. Photography: Yanni
W
hen you’ve been travelling around with carnivals all your life, it’s hard to settle in one place but Michael Wittingslow has managed to plant his roots on the Mornington Peninsula, firstly moving here with his family 28 years ago, and now buying Boneo Maze with his wife Manya. You couldn’t meet a more laidback bloke than Wittingslow, as we sit chatting at his rela tively new venture, Boneo Maze and Mini Golf. His daughter Sophie, who runs the administration side, brings him a plate of healthy nachos as children and parents enjoy a picnic in the sun. Michael grew up as a “carny” kid. His grandfather, the late Tom Wittingslow, founded the Rye Carnival in 1955, and it has remained a family business ever since.
E ssence
38 | PENINSULA
He recalls travelling around in a caravan as a child when his parents were running the carnival. “My brother, sisters and I would sleep at one end of the caravan, and every night mum and dad would pull down the table and convert it into a bed at the other. They used the attached annexe as a makeshift office and that’s where the performers and staff would come and get their pay,” says Michael with a laugh. “I learnt the true art of showmanship from my grandfather and father, to use every asset you have, and that a good showman knows a good product and knows how to sell it.” As a kid, Michael experienced first-hand how everything you have is used as part of the show. “I remember we always had prizes on the sideshows and one time my parents gave me a fire engine and I loved it. Then all of a sudden
it disappeared. They had been using it as a prize and someone actually won it.” The biggest lesson in showmanship came one day when Michael’s father accidentally killed the baby crocodiles he used in his act. “My dad used to do a crocodile show, with baby crocodiles he kept in a kiddies’ play pool. There was also a 20-foot [six-metre] crocodile in a tank behind them. They say it had a man’s leg in it when it was captured. Every night he would have to warm up the water for the crocodiles with an immersion heater but one time he went out and left the heater on so the crocodiles boiled. The show still went on the next day! They did start to smell a bit,” he says. “Now that’s a showman and that’s why he and my grandfather grew it into the biggest carnival business in Australia.” continued next page...
Summer 2014/15