Bayersville Zoo history at Mackay Harbour: History, photos

Zoo history part 3: Memories of childhood giggles with her sister when they walked into the zoo prompted Donna Seymour to buy the fat mirror about 25 years ago.

Mackay history enthusiast Danielle Jesser has put together a three-part series on the history of the Bayersville Zoo. Here is the final instalment:

Mirrors that made you look short, tall or fat had decades of Mackay people laughing when they visited the Bayersville Zoo.

Memories of childhood giggles with her sister when they walked into the zoo prompted Donna Seymour to buy the fat mirror about 25 years ago.

The mirror is still at her beach house and has provided her children and grandchildren with lots of laughs.

“About 25 years ago there was a rural supply shop in River St where we’d go to buy chook food and they had the fat mirror. We’d always have a laugh and I’d ask if it was for sale and they’d say no.

“One time we went into town because I’d won $80 on the lotto and I was going to buy a dress for my daughter, Sally. I asked again and they said ‘actually, yes, it is for sale’.

“I asked how much and they said $80, so I said if you can fit it in our Commodore wagon I’ll take it. They squeezed it in so we didn’t go dress shopping and went home,” Donna said.

The mirror was on the verandah of her beach house for years, prompting one larger sized neighbour to only visit by the back door.

The mirror casing has had a few coats of paint over the years and it is still a loved family possession.

Founder Beth Ayers reminisced about the zoo in March 1982, saying they would wake to the sound of about 30 peacocks leaving their roosts in the trees and landing on their roof.

“They were like an alarm clock; it was like square dancing at dawn. After a while they’d fly down and head to Harbour Rd for their breakfast of squashed toads.”

The rarest resident was an albino kookaburra found near Baralaba and bought for around $100. Jacky was a true albino with all-white feathers, pink eyes, beak and feet.

Another rare baby was Patra the leopard, the first born at Bayersville in March 1976, not to mention Percy the pelican who had an uncanny ability to understand Phil.

“He would lie down full length and flatten in despair if Phil told him ‘no fish today’. Then Phil would say ‘by jove I’ve found some fish for you Percy’ and instantly he’d be on his feet waiting for it.”

And then there was Wow Wow the ape with her specialty for touching people’s hair, including one male visitor’s hairpiece Beth had to retrieve from the cage and return to the startled owner.

Daisy the alligator had a special relationship with Phil.

“Actually it was a ‘David’ we found out later,” Beth said.

“We had him for 15 years. Phil would take him out among the people and hand feed him. He was a real old pet.

“But I’ll never forget the day he tried to climb a gate to get at a girl who teased him.”

In 1979 Beth and Phil Ayers sold the zoo to John Hannay after more than three decades of operation.

In January 1981 the Daily Mercury announced treetop dining had come to Mackay at the newly opened Farm House Char Grill with Hannay saying diners could sit on a specially constructed steel platform in one of the forks of the raintrees.

While the restaurant was BYO, “if you have forgotten to take along drinks you don’t have to rush back into town, as the Farmhouse has a special phone with a direct line to Mr Hannay’s bottle shop,” the article said.

The decline of the zoo was announced months later in June 1981 when the restaurant closed, with manager Gerry Gallaway telling the Daily Mercury bad smells from the nearby rubbish dump were blamed.

The beloved zoo closed on April 5, 1983, with the manager citing insufficient public attendance and in May 1983 it was sold with the auction of 380 items.

Gail Armstrong remembers collating the zoo catalogue for auction by second-hand dealer and pawn broker Michael Moohin.

Her earliest zoo memory is as a young child, laughing so much at the mirrors she wet her pants.

“My father had to mop up the mess with his hanky and squeeze it into a pot plant! My sister and I still love to go to Luna Park and laugh at ourselves in the mirror,” Gail said.

The hall of mirrors around 1960 at Bayersville Zoo at Mackay Harbour. Picture: Courtesy of the Vicki Brown Collection and Have You Seen The Old Mackay

She remembers the zoo being eerily empty when it came time to catalogue items for sale.

“We were out there for days and all the animals had gone by then except for a cockatoo, which kept calling ‘mum’ in a human voice and I’d turn around every time.’’

The zoo once had three cockatoos called Peter, Barney and Zoo.

“I had three children and I’d turn around and say ‘yes’ but it was only the bird. It had obviously learnt the word mum from listening to all of the children over the years,” Gail said.

She recalls the auction lasting all weekend.

“It was a big thing for us to be involved in something like that – it’s not every day you buy and sell a zoo.

“It was a massive effort. There were about four of us taking money and Mick employed an auctioneer and people came from near and far to bid.”

Gail’s other memory is of the merry-go-round in the middle near the coffee shop/team room.

“We started going out to the zoo when we were tiny kids and I was taking my kids out there so it spanned a long time in my life,” she said.

The animals were sold to other zoos and a collection including shells, coins, antique furniture and old convict irons were sold to two Mackay residents.

Six donkeys were sold to Andrew Martin of Percy Island who planned to use them as pack animals for people camping and exploring St Bees Island.

Special thanks to Gratton Schonfeld and Justine Morley from the Dudley Denny Mackay Regional Council Library for their research assistance and I Grew Up In Mackay Facebook page members for their contributions.

Have you got a Bayersville Zoo memory to share? Email your memories to Danielle.Jesser@ gmail.com or comment on the post.

Bayersville Zoo’s pesky animal antics leave a lasting impression

Mackay history enthusiast Danielle Jesser has put together a three-part series on the history of the Bayersville Zoo. Here is Part 2:

From a bold pelican fond of chasing and nipping children to tales of crocodiles, alligators and even otters, memories of Bayersville Zoo at Mackay Harbour keep flooding in.

The brightest ones are encounters young (generally unsuspecting) zoo visitors had with the animals.

Gordon Spencer is one of many who remembers being bitten on the bottom by a pelican who was renowned for sneaking up on people from behind.

Lauren Danastas was also followed by the pelican.

“It kept putting its beak around me, I will never forget that,” she said.

“That pelican hated me (or loved me, not sure which) but it followed me everywhere.”

Peter Moore was in Year 1 at Central School on an excursion when his teacher gave them a stern warning talk.

“I remember the pelican and he stood taller than me. The teacher said ‘the pelican is a policeman so behave yourselves’,” he said.

Les Dimond, originally from Mackay and now living in Townsville, has shared some of his memories and photos from zoo visits in the early 1970s.

“I do remember those monkeys and one of them harassing me. I seem to recall he snatched something from my back trouser pocket,” Les said.

Greg Smith remembered a big kangaroo having a go at his dad.

“I also remember they would bring a croc out of his cage and the kids would pat him or her while it was being fed. Amazing place as a kid – I loved it.”

Little Fella with a wallaby at the Bayersville Zoo, circa 1960s. Picture: William Fair Collection/Have You Seen The Old Mackay

Bayersville Zoo was not a place to passively look and learn, it was a hands-on experience and one many readers wish was still available to children today.

Judith Weier said she had many wonderful memories.

“It really is a shame that our grandchildren have nothing as wonderful as that nowadays.”

When I asked followers of the popular Facebook group Have You Seen The Old Mackay for their Bayersville Zoo memories, the stories came thick and fast.

Dozens shared stories of close interactions with animals and how the zoo was a highlight for many families and children, always entertaining yet always educational in its encounters with animals furred, feathered and scaled.

Memories of this icon are best told first-hand and many start with recollections of a large taxidermy collection.

Shane May: “I remember the taxidermy spider crab, it was in a glass top display inside the main entry I was in awe of the zoo and it.”

Trudy Drinkwater: “Help me out. I have a memory of a tiger (stuffed) near the internal stairs of the house – have I made this up?”

Kyn Keehn: “When we first came to Mackay in the mid-1970s we would visit the zoo. I loved the otters in the display at the very front of the complex. The insect collection was amazing.”

Pat John: “Great memories of the zoo. Worked there as an apprentice carpenter doing maintenance. The hyena with its hewed metal food bowl still sticks in my mind.”

Judi Frederickson: “Loved going there as a child. The monkeys stole everything, the ducks, the mongoose ate my foot when I was really little and I remember a large crocodile. It was an amazing place.”

Trish Biddle: “I went there many times as a kid, the monkey grabbed my brother’s hair, I remember his screams.”

Also the large collection of biological specimens was also popular with Michele Cox recalling her visit in 1971. “I loved it, especially all the weird things in jars like the two headed chicken”.

Kayleen Moss: “I remember going a fair few times, but mostly remember a three-legged chicken in a bottle of I guess formaldehyde.”

Anne Shire: “I remember the zoo. My mum’s relatives were visiting us and we all went to the zoo. The monkey grabbed my uncle’s smokes out of his pocket, my uncle didn’t get them back.”

The pond enclosure at Bayersville Zoo around 1960s. Picture: Mackay Historical Society Collection

Debbie Brooker: “The zoo is one of my childhood memories. The thing I loved most was the rabbits and their pastel coloured fur at Easter.”

Karen Mayes: “I loved the otters, there were two of them and you could actually touch their little outreached hands.”

Finally, there are more memories of the cheeky monkey at the entrance that scared children and irritated adults with its thieving ways taking peanuts from pockets and the odd set of car keys.

John Webster also lost his smokes, courtesy of the monkey.

“One moment I had a packet, next second gone. The little mongrel was back sitting above eating them,” he said.

Part three of this story in a fortnight will look at Bayersville Zoo’s sale to the notorious Valley nightclub owner John Hannay and what happened next. If you have any memories of the sale and auction to share please email [e-mail]

Monkey business: A renowned thief with no remorse

Mackay history enthusiast Danielle Jesser has put together a three-part series on the history of the Bayersville Zoo. Here is Part 1:

When you walked into the Bayersville Zoo at Mackay Harbour, chances were your first encounter was with a cheeky monkey sitting on a pole wearing a red and white polka dot vest – a renowned thief with no remorse.

Nothing was off limits, from a blanket in a baby’s pram to the sunglasses on the head of an unsuspecting visitor to a packet of smokes tucked in a top pocket, anything and everything was up for grabs – literally.

Hearts were also stolen every Easter when the rabbits were dyed all shades of pastel to the delight of children who not only got to see, but also pat the fluffy wonders.

Decades after closing the Bayersville Zoo still holds a special place in many hearts, not only for the animal antics but for the rare chance a zoo visit gave to appreciate and interact with amazing animals.

The story of how the Bayersville Zoo came to open is best told by founder Beth Ayers who explained how a butcher’s shop led to the opening of a zoo.

Her carefully typed 1976 original manuscript on three sheets of thin paper is now at the State Library of Queensland in the John Oxley Library collection and available on special request.

Beth explains how she and her husband Philip, her sister and her husband’s employer moved to a 2ha property fronting Mackay Harbour in February 1947.

At that time the dairy farm had a herd of 50 cows that grazed on the natural grasses around Mt Basset and from which the blue granite was taken to build Mackay Harbour.

The property had a three-room galvanised iron house, a milking shed and a quaint cream shed.

Instead of taking milk to the factory the new owners decided to deliver cream door-to-door.

“One of our friendly neighbours gave us his Hawaiian pineapple crop so for a portion of our first year it was pineapples and cream, either fresh or boiled (clotted), and the venture was most successful,” Beth wrote.

Even then, the dairy attracted visitors at milking time and the addition of Jersey stud followed and the family settled on the name Bayersville as a prefix for their goods.

B for Beth, Ayers, their name and the ville tagged on.

Later they established a large stud piggery which attracted more local attention and visitors. The standard litter was 10 to 12 piglets and the Bayersville record was 21 – all of which one survived.

The pigs proved a profitable income and in time the dairy was phased out and the obvious next phase for the family was to try their hand at butchering beef.

They built a first-class slaughterhouse and opened a shop adjoining the family home. For the first time, Mackay could buy tenderised beef and yearling beef.

“The response from the public was tremendous and in return for their patronage we gave them tender meat, good service and Saturday trading,” Beth wrote.

While Saturday trading was legal, it was unheard of and came at a time when few households could refrigerate the meat.

After trading on Saturdays, the union (unspecified) stepped in and the shop was declared ‘black’ and despite efforts to stop them trading, business flourished.

“We opened a shop in Mackay and employed women to oversee the meat which was delivered from the main shop at Bayersville, already cut up and trimmed.”

At this time, a craze for tropical fish tanks swept Mackay and within months the Ayers family had no less than 40 aquariums.

“It was when the shop was so crowded with customers that we used to invite them to view the fish, so as to relieve the problems of having to wait.

“It was those people, who by saying ‘why don’t you open your house to the public’, were responsible for us doing just that.”

After organising the necessary permits, the family was granted a B Class zoo licence which allowed them to import stock from overseas and to exchange stock with other Australian zoos.

“From then on we learned the art of keeping animals captive, but content, by using kindness, common sense, advice from other zoo keepers and reference books, plus having as our partner a retired veterinary surgeon whose knowledge was invaluable during those odd times of having an ill animal.”

Writing in 1976, Beth said there was just her and her husband to manage the property.

“Bayersville still retains the popularity of former years, for we are never content to ‘leave things as is’. Accommodation for the animals is constantly being improved and animals are exchanged from time to time with other zoos.

“The breeding of many animals has been most rewarding and includes raccoons, agoutis, baboons, monkeys, rat kangaroos, sugar gliders, wombats and hosts of wallabies and kangaroos,” she wrote.

Their home was also open to display with artefacts ranging from 19th century hand carved furniture from India to an 18th century grandfather clock and a more recent shell and coral collection.

There was a souvenir and giftshop at the front entrance as well as light refreshments and a host of children wanting to go on guided tours.

“My husband and I are humbly but justifiably proud of the continuing patronage of our business, evidence of the goal that we wished to achieve, that being to offer to local and visiting folk a place of visiting interest for a reasonable admission fee, at the same time enjoying a busy but full life ourselves,” Beth said.

Have you got a Bayersville Zoo memory to share? Email your memories to [e-mail] or comment on the post.