This article outlines the role of accounting information in circus in Australia in the approximate period 1847—1963. Responding to the call for an increased historical narrative in accounting, we have studied the literature, documentation and personal memoirs concerning circus in Australia. From our examination, we have abstracted and analysed material that expresses, or implies, the use of accounting information. Themes identified include the magnitude and nature of capital investments; ticket pricing and revenues; the nature and composition of operational costs; standards of internal control; insolvencies and liquidations. We have established that, despite elementary levels of education, many circus people exhibited an intuitive grasp of fundamental accounting principles, albeit in a rudimentary form. Nevertheless, since financial and management reporting practises were typically unsystematic, and even non-existent, in all but the largest circus enterprises, Australian circus management may not have been optimized.
Albrecht, E. (1995), The New American Circus, Miami : University Press of Florida.
2.
Anon. (1901), " Circus Life in Australia", The Australasian Stage.
3.
Anon. (1971), " Money Dug Up at Yeppoon & Treasure in Backyard", [Rockhampton] Morning Bulletin, 9 November.
4.
Anon. (1990), Summit Report: The First National Conference of Circus People, Circus Summit , Melbourne, 22-4 April 1990.
5.
Beadle, R. (2003), "The Discovery of a Peculiar Good: Towards a Reading of Nell Stroud"s Josser: Days and Nights in the Circus", Journal of Critical Postmodern Organization Science, Vol.2, No.3, pp.60-8.
6.
Beadle, R. and Konyot, D. (2006), "The Man in the Red Coat: Management in the Circus ", Culture and Organization, Vol.12, No.2, pp.127-37.
7.
Beard, V. (1994), "Popular Culture and Professional Identity: Accountants in the Movies", Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol.19, No.3, pp.303-18.
8.
Belkaoui, A.R. and Jones, S. (2002), Accounting Theory, Second Edition, Melbourne: Nelson Thomson Learning.
9.
Boyns, T. and Edwards, J.R. (1991), "Do Accountants Matter?: The Role of Accounting in Economic Development", Accounting, Business and Financial History, Vol.1, No.2, pp.177-95.
10.
Brief, R.P. (1965), "Nineteenth Century Accounting Error", Journal of Accounting Research, Spring, pp.12-31.
11.
Brief, R.P. (1990), "Accounting Error as a Factor in Business History ", Accounting, Business and Financial History, Vol.1, No.1, pp.7-21.
12.
Brisbane, K. (1991), Entertaining Australia: An Illustrated History , Sydney: Currency Press.
13.
Carmeli, Y. (1987), "Played by their own Play: Fission and Fusion in British Circuses", The Sociological Review, Vol.19, No.3, pp.303-18.
14.
Carmeli, Y. (1995), "The Invention of Circus and Bourgeois Hegemony: A Glance at Circus Books", Journal of Popular Culture, Vol.29, No.1, pp.213-22.
15.
Carmeli, Y. (1997), "The Sight of Cruelty: The Case of Circus Animal Acts", Visual Anthropology, Vol.10, pp.1-15.
16.
Carmeli, Y. (2001), "Circus Play, Circus Talk and the Nostalgia for a Total Order", Journal of Popular Culture, Vol.35, No.3, pp.157-64.
17.
Carnegie, G.D. (1997), Pastoral Accounting in Colonial Australia: A Case Study in Unregulated Accounting, New York and London: Garland Press.
18.
Carnegie, G.D. and Potter, B.N. (2000), "Accounting History in Australia: A Survey of Published Works, 1975-99", Australian Economic History Review , Vol.40, No.3, pp.287-313.
19.
Carnegie, G.D. and Wolnizer, P.W. (1995), "The Financial Value of Cultural, Heritage and Scientific Collections: An Accounting Fiction", Australian Accounting Review, Vol.5, No.1, pp.31-47.
20.
Carnegie, G.D. and Wolnizer, P.W. (1997), "The Financial Reporting of Publicly-Owned Collections: Whither Financial (Market) Values and Contingent Valuation Estimates?", Australian Accounting Review, Vol.7, No.1, pp.44-50.
21.
Cornford, P. (1973), "The Circus Lives", The National Times, November.
22.
Craig, R. (2000), "Some Artisans and Artefacts of Accounting in Colonial Australia, 1788-1828", Abacus, Vol.36, No.1, pp.91-107.
23.
Craig, R. and Jenkins, S. (1996), "Conjectures on Colonial History in Australia ", Abacus, Vol.32, No.2, pp.214-38.
24.
Cummings, L.S. and Burritt, R.L. (2002), "Accounting for Biological Assets: The Experience of an Australian Conservation Company", Asian Review of Accounting , Vol.10, No.2, pp.17-42.
25.
Henderson, S. and Peirson, G. (1988), Financial Accounting Theory: Its Nature and Development , Melbourne: Longman Cheshire.
26.
Higham, C. (1963), "Death of a Circus?", The Bulletin , 27 July.
27.
Hippisley Coxe, A. (1980), A Seat at the Circus, London : Macmillan Press.
28.
Jones, F.M. (1919), "Circus Stars and Stories: A Forty Years Retrospect ", The Theatre, 1 April.
29.
Kaplan, R.S. and Bruns, W. (1987), Accounting and Management: A Field Study Perspective , Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press.
30.
Kim, W.C. and Mauborgne, R. (2005), Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
31.
Linn, R. (1996), Power, Progress and Profit: A History of the Australian Accounting Profession, Melbourne: Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants.
32.
Little, K. (1995), "Surveilling Circus Archaos: Transgression and the Spaces of Power in Popular Entertainment", Journal of Popular Culture, Vol.29, No.1, pp.15-28.
33.
Mathias, P. (1993), "Business History and Accounting History: A Neighbourly Relationship", Accounting, Business and Financial History , Vol.3, No.3, pp.253-73.
34.
May, G.O. (1936), "The Influence of Accounting on the Development of an Economy, Railway Retirements and Depreciation", The Journal of Accountancy, March, pp.171-84.
35.
Micallef, F. and Peirson, G. (1997), "Financial Reporting of Cultural, Heritage, Scientific and Community Collections", Australian Accounting Review, Vol.7, No.1, pp.31-7.
36.
Morris, R.D. (1984), "Corporate Disclosure in a Substantially Unregulated Environment", Abacus, Vol.20, No.1, pp.52-86.
37.
Official Record of the Proceedings of the Congress of Accountants 1904. ( 1978), New York: Arno Press.
38.
Parker, L.D., (1999), "Historiography for the New Millennium: Adventures in Accounting and Management", Accounting History, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp.11-42.
39.
Parker, L.D., (2004), "Presenting" the past: perspectives on time for accounting and management history", Accounting, Business and Financial History, Vol.14, No.1, pp.1-28.
40.
Parker, R.H. (1961), "Australia's First Accountancy Body: The Adelaide Society of Accountants", The Chartered Accountant in Australia , Vol.32, No.6, pp.337-40.
41.
Parkinson, T. and Fox, C.P. (1978), The Circus Moves by Rail, Boulder, CO: Pruett Publishing Co.
42.
Ritchie, J. (ed.) (1990), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 12: 1891-1939, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
43.
Salmon, M. (1904), "An Old-time Circus", Australian Town & Country Journal, 4 August.
44.
Shennan, M.R. (1995), The 1855 Ovens Election and the Golden Horseshoes , Melbourne: Shennan, M.R.
45.
Speaight, G.A. (1980), A History of the Circus, London : The Tantivy Press.
46.
St Leon, M. (1984), Australian Circus Reminiscences, Sydney: St Leon, M.
47.
St Leon, M. (1985), Australian Circus Sources, Sydney: St Leon, M.
48.
St Leon, M.V. (1993), The Wizard of the Wire: The Story of Con Colleano , Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press .
49.
St Leon, M.V. (1994), `Australian Circus Language: A Report on the Nature, Origin and Circumstances of Aussie Argot under the Big Top', English Today, Vol.10, No.1, January, pp.43-9.
50.
St Leon, M.V. (1999), "Yankee Circus to the Fabled Land: The Australian-American Circus Connection", Journal of Popular Culture, Vol.33, No.1, Summer, pp.77-89.
51.
St Leon, M.V. (2000), "Education Practice in Australian Circus, 1847-1930 ", International Journal of Education Research, Vol.33, No.3, pp.285-95.
52.
Stroud, N. (1999), Josser: Days and Nights in the Circus, London: Little Brown & Co.
53.
Taylor, M. (2002), "Transport and Logistics, Circus Style", Journal of the Institute of Logistics and Transport, Vol.4, No.10, pp.64-9.
54.
Thayer, S. (1971), Mudshows & Railers: The American Circus in 1879, Ann Arbor, MI: author.
55.
Williams, R.B. (1999), "Lifting Stones: A Place for Microhistory in Accounting Research", Accounting History, Vol.4, No.1, pp.59-78.
56.
Wirth, G. (1920), "The Romance of a Great Circus: George Wirth in a Reminiscent Mood", The Theatre, 1 April.
57.
Wykes, A. (1977), Circus! An Investigation Into What Makes The Sawdust Fly, London: Jupiter Books.
58.
Yamey, B.S. (1989), Art and Accounting, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
59.
Zoological Parks Board of NSW, The (2006), Annual Report 2006: The Living Future, Sydney: Zoological Parks Board of NSW.
