Do You have a PTC 30 Memory?

Many people in Australia may remember PTC#30 as "the Luna Park merry-go-round". In Australia and America this was the ride's traditional name. The word carousel is derived from the French "carrousel" and Italian "carosello" where knights engaged in tournaments and chariot races. On PTC#30's rounding boards is the manufacturer's sign showing the word spelt with two rs.

PTC#30 has been turning at Luna Park for nearly eighty years. At least three generations of Australians remember the carousel and riding its lifelike horses. In 1923, aged nine, Violet Larter rode the carousel. It was the year the carousel arrived at Luna Park. She is pictured at right in a photo taken by her father, George Lonsdale, an amateur photographer. Violet, now aged 87, remembered him saying "get on the still one and I'll take your photo". However, Violet's favourite horses were the "ones that went up and down", She didn't like the chariots . "I never wanted to sit on them, they were too mundane. I liked to be on a horse".

Click on Violet's photo and see her again on the same standing horse in December 2001.

Luna Park has been relaunched with new attractions and rides on a number of occasions. The poster at right announced the "Gala Opening" on Saturday September 24, 1938, for Luna Park's silver anniversary. It was discovered under the lino floor covering in a house in Hawthorn, Melbourne. If you have any memorabilia related to the PTC#30 Carousel or Luna Park, we would love to see it here at Equus Art. Stories or memories of the carousel would also be welcome for inclusion on the website. Photos etc. entered on this site will of course be acknowledged if you wish.

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