Our Brisbane History

This is a photo of the Perry Bros Circus truck, a solid tyre AEC, taken at Fortitude Valley Brisbane Queensland in 1920. From left to right: Joe Marconi, the founder of Goanna Oil in Qld and a good friend of the Perrys, Ted Perry,  Alby Perry holding the big elephant by the ear. The man under the elephant's trunk is Henry Perry and the man in uniform is Jack Stephens, who was killed by Tommy, the baby elephant in this photo, 17 years after this photo was taken in Parkes NSW.

Goanna Salves Humanity

Goanna Salves

Joseph Conrelius Marconi was the son of Irish immigrants and started life with the more prosaic name of Joe Mahoney. At the time of his death in 1922 his Goanna Oil and Salve, billed as the Australian Bush Remedy, was know nationally for its remarkable properties.

In the mid 1890s Joe joined the world of traveling sideshows. He ran a marionette show in which he used his baby daughter as a doll. He eventually became the manager of a sideshow act featuring the entertainer Lyn Vane who worked with venomous snakes and reptiles. Vane entertained crowds by allowing himself to be bitten by deadly snakes and when the public was convinced that death was imminent he rubbed a secret antidote onto the bite. His healing balm which was made from native plants was naturally for sale to his appreciative audience. In assisting Vane to collect plans for his potion Marconi reputedly came into contact with Aboriginal people and learned of their use of liquefied goanna fat as a healing remedy.

Over a period of years Marconi developed a medicinal product which combined the penetrating qualities of goanna oil with medicinal herbs and plant extracts including eucalyptus. Having produced his salve, Joe used his shameless showmanship to develop it into a national product highly regarded in boat the city and the bush. The great advertising myth was that the product's remarkable penetrating qualities were so great that they could not be contained in a glass bottle.

In 1910, Marconi began the manufacture of his Goanna Oil and Salve in Brisbane at Kennedy Terrace, Paddington, and then in 1915 he moved to Duke Street, Bulimba. Prior to this time Joe purchased goannas from country suppliers. However, at Duke Street, he was proud to establish his own 'goannery'

The success of the Goanna Products relied in part on Marconi's flair for flamboyant promotions. He enlisted the aid of Archibald Meston, who billed himself as 'journalist, explorer and ethnologist', as a high profile advocate for the product. Meston toured the country with a corroboree show which he called 'Wild Australia'. Joe also used Ashton Murphy, a well-know black and white artist of the period, to develop graphic advertisements which made extravagant claims for the product. Goanna Salve is still produced in Brisbane today by Herron Pharmaceuticals.