Thursday 14th August 1924

Australia’s last horse-drawn stagecoach service run by Cobb & Co from Yuleba to Surat in Queensland. It was founded during the 1850 gold rush and at its peak in the 1870s had 6,000 horses in use each day. Cobb & Co coaches were often held up by bandits who stole gold, passengers property and mail.Cobb & Co’s operations across Australia were eventually superseded by the expansion of railway networks, the arrival of cheap, reliable automobiles and the emergence of Air Mail. In 1920, the Charleville coachworks closed and by 1921, Cobb & Co in Queensland had lost most of its mail contracts running out of Charleville. The company also had a vast amount of debt due to over-expansion into industries like wool.In 1911 the Company approved its first purchase of motor vehicles. In New South Wales, the last coach probably ran on the Hebel-Goodooga-Brewarrina routes in 1913, while the last coach ran in Victoria from Casterton to Mount Gambier in 1916. Australia’s last horse-drawn stagecoach service was run by Cobb & Co from Yuleba to Surat in Queensland on August 14, 1924. With the rapid decline in wool prices in 1929, Cobb & Co Queensland finally went into liquidation. Gordon Studdert, a former employee, kept the Cobb & Co name as his Surat store business name until his death in 1955.

The 598 kilometre Cobb Highway in western New South Wales is named in commemoration of the company.