Brisbane History, Published 3 July 2026
The Day Brisbane Had a Tiger Problem!
Today, the biggest danger in Brisbane’s CBD might be a rogue e-scooter… but in 1888, it was a full-grown Bengal tiger running loose in the streets!
On 21 November 1888, Brisbane residents near the corner of George and Turbot Streets witnessed a scene straight out of a Hollywood movie. Screams erupted from Charles Higgins’ Great Menagerie of Wild Performing Animals, and moments later a Bengal tiger named Jimmy burst from his cage.
The reason? A handyman, Peter Bertram, had been cleaning the tiger’s enclosure and failed to properly secure the cage door. Realising his mistake, he did what most of us would probably do - he ran for his life! Unfortunately, Jimmy thought this looked like a great game of chase.
One newspaper described the tiger launching through the gates “as if propelled from a catapult”, before knocking Bertram to the ground with a terrifying swipe of his paw.
But then came the real hero of the story - the menagerie owner Charles Higgins. Armed with nothing more than a small whip and a huge amount of courage (or perhaps questionable judgement!), Higgins confronted the tiger and managed to force Jimmy back under control, although he suffered a bite to his arm in the process.
The drama didn’t end there. Brisbane residents were outraged and demanded the menagerie be shut down. To make matters worse, it was later revealed that a monkey had previously escaped and been found in a local man’s bedroom, and just days after the tiger incident, a dingo escaped and caused chaos in Alice Street.
So next time you walk through Brisbane’s CBD, spare a thought for the people of 1888 - because their morning commute came with a very different kind of wildlife encounter!
History really is stranger than fiction!
A note on our visuals: To help tell this story, we’ve used computer‑generated illustrations modelled on public domain archives. The colour images are produced strictly for educational, non‑commercial history sharing. Newspaper cutting: Public Domain
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