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Cobb and Co stage coach company was established by Freeman Cobb, an American with partners John Murray Peck, James Scanlon and James A. Lamber. The company was based in
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and ran American-imported Concord coaches to and from the Victorian goldfields.
Cobb & Co operated its lines after nightfall and its coaches were known for their triangular arrangement of lamps which were set on either side of the coach and a large central light was placed on the roof. This triangle of lights was visible for many
miles across open country and is remembered in Henry Lawson’s poem, 'The Lights of Cobb & Co.'
The first
services began in 1854 between
Melbourne and
Bendigo. In 1861 Rutherford proposed extending the business into New South Wales, but his partners opposed the plan. They reversed the decision following news of the Lambing Flat (
Young) gold rush. Rutherford moved ten coaches from the
Castlemaine Depot in Victoria to
Bathurst in 1862, and re-established his headquarters there. He transported passengers from the railway station at Penrith, all the way to the new goldfields. In 1865 on recommendations by Rutherford the company again expanded to Queensland.
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The first Cobb and Co service in Queensland was between
Ipswich and
Brisbane in 1865. The coach stage stops were at Goodna and at the Oxley hotel. This service ended when the railway link was completed in 1875. In 1871 Frederick Shaw joined the firm and established a large office, coach building factory and stables at Petrie Bight.The company continued to expand it
services, reaching North Queensland in the 1880s. During this period
services were expanded into south west Queensland.
Cobb and Co's operations were eventually superseded by the development of the automobile and, in some areas, by railways. Not to mention the vast amount of debt that the company had taken on due to overexpansion into industries like wool.The company went into receivership in 1911 after Rutherford's death. Their last horse-drawn coach service ran in 1924.
Today the Dyson Group of Companies owns the Cobb and Co coach company, which Dyson acquired when it purchased the Nixon Group in 2000. The company name has been resurrected in recent years by various operators and horse drawn coaches still operate at various locations throughout Australia.
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The Horse-drawn ‘Concord’ or ‘thorough-brace’ type stage coach made by Abbott and Downing, coachbuilders of New Hampshire, USA
This Concord coach spent the later part of its working life with Aisbett's Royal Mail Line and Vines and McPhee in the goldfields district south-west of
Ballarat. There it carried passengers and mail from the railway station at Scarsdale to the mining settlements at Pitfield and Berringa. Remarkably, the coach remained in service until 1924, an exceptional record for a vehicle that spent most of its life on rough, unmade roads. The coach could carry up to 20 passengers at a time and would typically have been drawn by four or five horses, which were replaced at 'stages' every ten to fifteen kilometres. Today, the Concord coach is of international significance, being one of the few surviving 19th century coaches of its type remaining unrestored in its last working condition
and is on display at the Transport Collection at Museum Victoria.
.