432 Pages: A Catalogue of Things
Up Close & Inside
Cobb & Co Coach, at 
">Melbourne Museum.
The associated info panel says"
This coach is believed to have been built in Geelong in about 1880 for the Western Stage Company, which ran coaches throughout western Victoria under the 'Cobb & Co' banner. Pulled by four or five horses, the coach carried up to 17 passengers. Mail and luggage were stowed in the compartment below the driver's seat, and on the rear luggage rack or roof.
At the National Museum of Australia (database record, has more photos).
The accompanying panel says:
Concord model thorough-brace coach 1860-80
This coach may have been manufactured by Cobb and Co. at its Charleville coachworks in Queensland or by a smaller company in the Gunnedah area of New South wales. It was used on Robert Nowland's Gunnedah to Coonabarabran mail run, probably the 1870s. At first this 100-kilometre route followed a rough bush track, if the coach got bogged or the road was too steep for the four-in-hand horse term, passengers had to get out and walk. In 18880, just after the railway reached Gunnedah, the government built a good road between the two towns. Nowland was granted persimmons to use the road in 1882 and it proved a lucrative route. If the weather was fine, the new route took 12 hours, with tree stops along the way to change horses.
Trunk about 1900
When the coach was acquired by the Museum in 1980 this wooden trunk came with it. The tray on the rear of the coach, known as the 'boot', was used for luggage, as was the roof. Goods were sometimes stowed under the seats and could bang passengers' legs on rough stretches of road.
Inside.
