Cobb and Co

Cobb & Co is the name of a transportation company in Australia. It was prominent in the late 19th century when it operated stagecoaches to many areas in the outback and at one point in several other countries, as well.

Alfred Deakin, Australia's second Prime Minister, was once a manager of Cobb & Co. Today it is a luxury coach operator in Melbourne and is owned by the Dyson Group.

The Company

Initially trading as The American Telegraph Line of Coaches, the company was established in 1853 by four Americans Freeman Cobb, John Murray Peck, James Swanton and John Lamber but only rose to prominence when bought by James Rutherford and a consortium of nine other partners in 1861. Rutherford's partners included Alexander William Robertson, John Wagner, Walter Russell Hall, William Franklin Whitney and Walter Bradley. Rutherford re-organised and extended the Victorian services and although winning a monopoly on major mail contracts, he found the advancing railways fast making Cobb & Co's Victorian routes redundant.

Cobb & Co. (New Zealand)

Cobb and Co is the name of a company that operated a fleet of stagecoaches in Australia in the late 19th century. Cobb & Co themselves did not operate in New Zealand officially but their name was used by many private stage coach operators.

History

In 1861, the discovery of gold in Gabriel's Gully, Otago, prompted a gold rush and saw many Australian gold-diggers heading for the port of Dunedin. Among these was the Cobb & Co. coach proprietor Charles Cole, who had been running a service from Smythe's Creek to Ballarat, Victoria. He chartered the steamship S.S. India at Geelong and on 4 October 1861 landed in Dunedin with one 'Concord' coach, five wagons, a buggy and some fifty-four horses.

A vast improvement in comfort, the new American 'Concord' coaches were built by J. Abbott of Concord, New Hampshire. Each had a centre door with a glass window which could be raised or lowered; the openings either side had curtains of American leather which rolled up and down to keep out the weather. The interior was upholstered in crimson plush, while the outside was painted red, with gold ornamentation. A box seat and roof seat allowed the coach to carry five extra outside passengers, with six to nine seated around the inside.