He tried to return to his original career of tightrope walking but, with new forms of entertainment, humiliating falls and other Blondin imitators, he found success elusive.

He first came to public attention in 1873 as a member of a Melbourne performance group, the Royal Comet Variety Troupe, a gymnastic, dancing and comedic vocal combination with Miss Lulu L'Estrange and Monsieur Julian.

Tightrope walking had grown in popularity in Australia through the 1860s, following reports reaching the Australian Colonies of the exploits of the great French walker, Charles Blondin, who crossed Niagara Falls in 1859.

The store's shed was demolished, a surrounding fence knocked down, part of L'Estrange's performance tent caught fire, and two young boys were injured.

Spectators clambered up the sides of the bay for vantage points, while hundreds more stayed on board steamboats, yachts and in row boats below.

[7] The distance meant that two ropes were required, spliced together in the centre, to reach the other side, with 16 stays fixed to the shore and into the harbour to steady the structure.

Everything being ready, precisely at 4 o'clock L'Estrange come out of his tent on the eastern shore, dressed in a dark tunic and a red cap and turban.

Starting off amidst the cheers of the spectators, L'Estrange walked fearlessly at the rate of eighty steps to a minute across the rope, until he reached a spliced part near the centre, some twenty feet in length, which he passed more deliberately.

The Sydney Mail questioned the worth of such a performance beyond the profits made, commenting that it was, "...a mystery to many minds why such large concourses of people should gather together to witness a spectacle which has so little intrinsic merit.

The same night he was guest of honour at a testimonial dinner held at the Victoria Theatre where The Young Australian Band played "The Blondin March", a piece composed specially by their conductor Mr J. Devlin.

Measuring 3 inches (76 mm) across, it was centred with a 1½ carat diamond and suspended by a blue ribbon to a clasp featuring the Australian coat of arms in silver.

The idea that people could be lifted from the ground to fly and return safely fired the imagination of the public, and the novelty of balloon ascents continued to draw large crowds through the 1860s and 1870s.

Returning to the start point, L'Estrange tried again, shooting up into the air approximately 50 feet (15 m) and sailing away towards the south, before descending again and being dragged across the park.

Having floated much higher than originally anticipated the balloon greatly expanded and a weak seam in the calico fabric suddenly burst.

As a result of high atmospheric pressure and heavy dew weighing down the balloon, inflation took longer than anticipated, and the crowd grew restless.

He described the rest of his voyage in a letter to a friend: I then got into a westerly current that took me out to sea, on which I determined to come down to mother earth without delay, but picture to yourself my horror when I found the escape valve would not act.

[23] L'Estrange's balloon descended rapidly over the rooftops of Woolloomooloo, slamming into a house near the corner of Palmer Street and Robinson Lane.

The resulting fireball destroyed the balloon, burnt a number of bystanders and was bright enough to "...cast a brief but vivid illumination over the entire suburb".

[24] A panicked crush developed as groups tried to both flee from and rush towards the brief, but extremely bright, conflagration while those further away at the launch site assumed L'Estrange had been killed.

[26] Although a Masonic benefit was held in his honour to try to recoup some of his financial losses, the fiasco spelt the end of L'Estrange's aeronautical career.

In a change of direction in March 1882, L'Estrange applied to the Sydney City Council to establish a juvenile pleasure gardens at the Paddington Reservoir.

In April 1881 L'Estrange, given top billing as "the hero of Middle Harbour", performed at the Garden Palace on the high-rope as part of the Juvenile Fete, with other acrobats, contortionists and actors.

[28] With proof of the continuing popularity of the rope act, he decided to return to his greatest triumph; the spectacular crossing of the harbour in 1877 which had still not been repeated.

On 23 December 1882, L'Estrange advised the public that he would cross the harbour once more, this time riding a bicycle across Banbury Bay, close to the site of his original success.

It was advertised that the benefit, under the patronage of the Mayor and Aldermen of Sydney, and with Bill Beach, world champion sculler in attendance, was prompted because L'Estrange had "lately met with a severe accident".

By the time L'Estrange returned to Sydney to attempt his second harbour crossing in 1882, the city was awash with Blondin imitators performing increasingly dangerous, and probably illegal, feats.

[1] In 1886 L'Estrange again applied to the Sydney City Council for permission to establish an amusement ride called "The Rocker" in Belmore Park.

In 1894 Edwin L'Estrange "who a few years ago acquired some celebrity as the Australian Blondin" appeared in court in Fitzroy, Victoria having been knocked down and run over by a horse and buggy being driven by a commercial traveller.

[37][38][39] A children's book featuring L'Estrange's exploits entitled The Marvellous Funambulist of Middle Harbour and Other Sydney Firsts was published in 2015.