Eighty years of thrills, lights and laughter, and it all started with one determined showman.

Our History.

The Beginning

The Wittingslow legacy began with our founder, Thomas George Wittingslow. He started out as an apprentice at a Melbourne fun parlour, then took to the road working small shows and fairs across country Victoria in the 1930s. His lifelong love of carnival rides and games was sparked at his very first Royal Melbourne Show, where his "Guess Your Weight" game was a runaway hit. Thomas had found his calling: sharing the joy and exhilaration of the carnival with everyone who walked through the gates.

"Moomba Belonged to My Grandfather"

We brought carnival fun to Australia

After the war, Thomas returned to the industry in 1946, and with his son Des began working the fairs in the big provincial towns. Together they introduced some of the first amusement rides to the Royal Melbourne Show, at a time when the merry-go-round was capturing the whole country's imagination after years of wartime austerity. It's thanks to their pioneering vision that Australia's love affair with the carousel truly began.

By 1948, Melbourne's Moomba Festival saw the Wittingslows bring a brand new generation of thrill rides to Australia, along with rides and games shipped in from England, Europe and the United States. The showgrounds would never be the same.

We created the Mornington Peninsula carnival tradition

Since the 1950s, millions of holidaymakers on the Mornington Peninsula have made summer memories at the Rye and Rosebud Summer Carnival. Three quarters of a century on, that tradition still lights up the foreshore every summer.

We pioneered ride design

We've never been content just to run the rides. We helped invent them. Wittingslow pioneered ride design and construction, with work that led to Queensland's Sea World roller coaster, and our smiling clowns became familiar faces at the Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide agricultural shows.

We've managed major festivals across Australia

From the 1990s, Wittingslow's commitment to festival management helped produce some of Victoria's finest public events, including the Melbourne Moomba Festival, the Geelong Waterfront Festival and the AusDay Festival.

The first Australian company to take our rides to Asia

In 2002, Wittingslow became the first Australian amusement company to take its rides overseas to carnivals across Asia. In Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Bangkok and Seoul, crowds were squealing and smiling on Wittingslow rides.

We've starred in the movies

In 2004 and 2005, Wittingslow won the contract to build the country fair scene for Paramount Pictures' filming of the classic Charlotte's Web, released in 2006. It was a huge and intricate production, and one more stage on which the family delivered an event of the highest quality.

A proud place in Australian history

We're proud of Thomas Wittingslow's legacy, and prouder still that our carnival ride story is part of the National Gallery of Australia's Eternity exhibition. From a weight-guessing game at the Show to a permanent place in the national story, it's been quite a ride.

  • Disney

  • Crown Casino

  • Rio Tinto 

  • City of Melbourne 

  • Mornington Peninsula Shire

  • Shire of East Gippsland

  • Hanna-Barbera Productions ‘Charlotte’s Web’ Feature film

Organisations we work with on major events

Local Festivals and Events

  • Oz festival

  • Hastings Festival

  • Australia Day

  • Rye community Festival

  • Waterfront Festival Frankston

  • Geelong Waterfront Festival

  • Family New Years Eve

  • Lantasia

Events for raising awareness

After the war, Thomas returned to the industry in 1946, and with his son Des began working the fairs in the big provincial towns. Together they introduced some of the first amusement rides to the Royal Melbourne Show, at a time when the merry-go-round was capturing the whole country's imagination after years of wartime austerity. It's thanks to their pioneering vision that Australia's love affair with the carousel truly began.

By 1948, Melbourne's Moomba Festival saw the Wittingslows bring a brand new generation of thrill rides to Australia, along with rides and games shipped in from England, Europe and the United States. The showgrounds would never be the same.

The Moomba years

Our story at Melbourne's Moomba Festival began with the vision of Tom Wittingslow. Held as a prisoner of war in Changi, Tom dreamed of building Australia's largest travelling carnival, a riot of red, yellow and blue. That dream became our Moomba: the biggest, fastest and most thrilling carnival in the country.

For forty years, three generations of the family gave three months of every year to building and running our part of the Moomba festival. We divided the work to manage an operation that size. One of us travelled the world to bring home the newest rides, another served as artistic director, introducing the river pageant and the water screen, while Des took on the physical job of constructing the setups on site.

New rides marked every leap in the carnival's growth and helped make Wittingslow the largest travelling show in Australia. One of the proudest was "The Turbo," a twenty-metre monster of spinning wheels and alien lights. Its test run the night before opening sent family and crew running for cover. The next day it was a runaway hit.

Charity was woven through every year of the carnival, not bolted on. Each season, buses brought children with disabilities into the grounds to enjoy the rides in their wheelchairs and on their stretchers. Those visits softened even the toughest ride operators on the showground, who loved watching the children light up.

Life on the carnival was a tight-knit community living on site at Alexandra Gardens. After the gates closed each night, family and workers gathered outside the caravans to share stories over a drink. The talk ran from the memorable mishaps, the fireworks that went wrong, the dragon boat that sank, the record set jumping the Yarra, to the endless politics with the Melbourne City Council.

Above all, we lived by the codes, the culture and the bonds that only travelling show life creates. Across four decades, the goal never changed: to hold the family together, and to bring entertainment, laughter and thrills to people right across Australia.

Timeline

1932 Thomas Wittingslow takes to the road with small shows and fairs across country Victoria.

1946 Thomas and son Des return after the war and bring the first amusement rides to the Royal Melbourne Show.

1957 Wittingslow debuts a new generation of thrill rides at Melbourne's Moomba Festival.

1950s The Rye and Rosebud Summer Carnival tradition begins on the Mornington Peninsula.

1990s Wittingslow moves into festival management, producing major events across Victoria.

1991 Moomba’s management shifted to competitive tendering, Wittingslow Amusements in charge of running all the remaining operational and Car functions for the festival.

1996 Development of ALLARA  foundation committee

1997 Development of new company Splash Down

1998 Largest portable toilet company in Australia

1999 Development of corporate Christmas picnics “Summerfun”

2000 Relocation of Business to Mornington Peninsula / Rosebud

2001 Sand Sculpting Australia / Rye

2002 The first Australian amusement company to take its rides to Asia.

2006 Wittingslow builds the country fair scene for Hanna-Barbera’s film Charlotte's Web.

2012 Rye Playground construction

2013 Development of Boneo Maze / Fingal

2013 Development of “Lantasia “” Lantern company at Boneo Maze

2026 Four generations on, still bringing the fun.