Friends had recommended to us a ride on a Cobb & Co Coach - and we had found out that the last run of the season was on Friday - hence our haste to get here. We had booked on the last coach of the season - and considered ourselves extremely fortunate to gain a seat. The coaches are run by Kinnon and Co, a family run business that diversified into tourism after a drought in around 2006 nearly sent them to the wall. Richard Kinnon has expanded the business into so much more than a Coach Ride. Part history lesson, part adrenaline ride, we signed up for the full deal.
The Cobb and Co coaching empire at its peak had a network of runs across the eastern part of Australia, from Normanton in the gulf to Victoria. With some 60 000 horses travelling some 45 000km per week, it was an incredible network, that was started by a young man (he was 19) who came to the Goldfields to make his fortune and realised that digging for gold was a pretty hit and miss way to achieve it. He did recognise however that there was a desperate need for transportation. His business model is now called franchising, and it made young Mr Cobb extremely rich, however he lost all his money gambling on river boats in the United States - and the business slowly folded in the early 20th century due in no small part to another enterprise that started just down the road - as we shall come to later.
The boys check out our fine steeds for the morning's ride.
