Cobb & Co. Coaching in Queensland

Overview

For more than 70 years, Cobb & Co. coaches and horses travelled millions of kilometres of unmade outback roads to provide communication links for many isolated communities. Nowhere was the influence of the legendary coaching company so widespread as in Queensland, where Cobb & Co. operated horse-drawn coaches from 1866 until succumbing to the motor vehicle in 1924.

This special edition of Cobb & Co. Coaching in Queensland — redesigned and reissued for the centenary of the last coach service in Queensland — traces the rise and decline of this historic company. Drawing on extensive research, including interviews and correspondence with former employees and passengers, Deborah Tranter challenges myths about the company in this highly visual panorama of Queensland’s formative years from the perspective of the people who built, drove, serviced and travelled on Cobb & Co. coaches.

Queensland Museum Cobb+Co, Toowoomba, is home to the National Carriage Collection, featuring more than 50 horse-drawn vehicles from Queensland’s transport history.

Cobb & Co. Coaching in Queensland is also available in Braille and eBraille through Braille House.

Publication details

ISBN: 978 0 9756623 0 4 (2nd edition)
Paperback, 250 x 210 mm (portrait), full colour, 160pp
Date of publication: August 2024 (first edition 1990)
Published by Queensland Museum
Author: Deborah Tranter