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In 1916 Queenie was earning the zoo £5 per day on her busiest days, that is a lot of rides at tuppence a person.
By 1939 the newspapers of the day were claiming Queenie had travelled about 36,000 miles around the Zoo, carrying passengers.
It is estimated (so the paper claims) that Queenie was padding the enclosure in the gardens 19 1/2 miles each week. She made about 150 trips a week, carrying eight children each time.
There are so many articles on Queenie and her near human mind set, a very intelligent animal and as the old cliche goes, had a magnificent memory. I can fully believe she remembered Colin from her days on Euryalus. |
On one occasion in 1929, a group of about fifteen schoolboys were teasing Queenie by offering her nuts and fruit in turn and then withdrawing the food just as she reached for it. This game continued for a while until the elephant retreated to the pool behind her house. She returned some minutes later and, imitating their behavior, held out her trunk to each boy in turn, withdrawing it before they could touch it. The boys were delighted with this variation of the game until, as if carrying out a pre-planned attack, she soaked them all thoroughly with a well-aimed spray of dirty water from her pool.
On September 19, 1944 while making her way back to her enclosure after giving rides, Queenie crushed her keeper Mr Wilfred Lawson, 68, who had been her keeper since she arrived. There are varying accounts of the incident, two witnesses claimed the keeper stopped to pick up something from the ground, when the elephant failed to step clear, and crushed him with her knee. |
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Other more wild claims from the day state she picked her keeper up in her trunk and dashed him to the ground. Considering the temperament of the animal over the previous 42 years the former claim is the most likely.
The Argus of 21-09-1944 said:
Queenie, the Zoo elephant, is wondering what has become of Mr Wilfred Lawson, her attendant for about 30 years, who died on Tuesday from injuries caused when he fell and Queenie put her foot on him. "The shadow of the tragedy is sensed by Queenie. I feel sure she knows there is something wrong and is fretting," Mr H. Kendall, director of the Zoological Gardens, said yesterday.
Queenie spent the day in the seclusion of the elephant house, swaying, slowly from foot to foot, and picking only occasionally at her food. "Watch this reaction," said Mr Kendall. He shouted, "Come here, Queenie. Come here, Queenie."Queenie slowly turned her head with a plainly downcast expression, but made no further response. "Last week," said Mr Kendall, "she would have ambled over and put out her trunk for food. I'm sure she wonders why Mr Lawson hasn't come today."
After many calls to have the animal put down, the board of the Zoological Gardens decided to stop the elephant rides on Queenie and simply keep her as an exhibit. This reprieve did not last very long however, citing a wartime lack of fodder Queenie was shot by one of the keepers on the 22nd of June 1945
The official Melbourne Zoo website has the following:
Queenie was probably the elephant that was presented by FS Grimwade and arrived in Melbourne on the SS Euralus from Calcutta in March 1902. At the time she was too young to give rides so, when Ranee died in 1904, another elephant was purchased. By April 1905, the Grimwade elephant was ready to carry children and, for a while, two elephants walked the circuit. For economic reasons, one - probably the later arrival - was sold to Eronis Circus. The younger one remained and became known as Queenie.
For forty years, Queenie gave rides to visitors and built up a huge local following. She carried up to five hundred people on a busy day. Her image dominated the posters and postcards. A photograph of her was used alongside articles on the Zoo, often in the company of Andrew Wilkie, now head gardener, soon to be director. As she grew to maturity, her howdah had to be altered to allow for the changing shape of her body.
Queenie's fame was encouraged by the many reports and photographs that appeared in the newspapers during that period. Her infrequent baths, for example, were recorded with descriptions of her being brushed to shift the straw and dirt from the hide, washed, then rubbed down with 28lb of warm coconut oil.
As the most popular animal in the collection, Queenie often had large crowds of children around her enclosure even when she was not giving rides. Sometimes, some would move too close to her track, prick her trunk with pins and tease her with fake offers of food. According to Andrew Wilkie, her way of retaliating was to use her trunk to "tumble such trespassers over in the dust", clearly without causing injury or the administration would have stopped her immediately. On one occasion, a group of about fifteen schoolboys were teasing Queenie by offering her nuts and fruit in turn and then withdrawing the food just as she reached for it. This game continued for a while until the elephant retreated to the pool behind her house. She returned some minutes later and, imitating their behaviour, held out her trunk to each boy in turn, withdrawing it before they would touch it. The boys were delighted with this variation of the game until, as if carrying out a pre-planned attack, she soaked them all thoroughly with a well-aimed spray of dirty water from her pool.
The circumstances of Queenie's final year and death in 1945 were particularly sad. Never noted for ill-temper or aggressive behaviour, she attacked her keeper one evening and killed him. Wilfred Lawson had come out of retirement to look after Queenie because there was a shortage of qualified younger men to take on this difficult task. Apparently, at the end of a relatively quiet day, he tapped the Queenie on her trunk whereupon she suddenly turned on him, crushing him to death. She was withdrawn from service immediately, pending the results of the coroner's inquest. Headlines such as 'Queenie distressed by death of attendant', 'Queenie declared dangerous' and 'Queenie locked in, awaits verdict' was followed shortly by 'found guilty' and 'convicted ...of the deliberate killing of her lifelong keeper'. Despite representations from the Board on her behalf, the coroner announced she was dangerous but left it to the Zoo to decide on her fate.
In the light of this public emotion, the Board decided to keep Queenie as an exhibit, there was no question of allowing children to ride her again. Her behaviour was continually monitored and still there was no indication that she was any different from the docile, tractable animal the young Melbournians had known for so many years. But the high cost of keeping her and the shortage of fodder eventually forced the Zoo Board to put her down.
Zoo Website
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Keepers saddling Queenie 1916