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Cob & Co on the Peninsula
By Ilma Hackett - Balnarring and District Historical Society
Cobb & Co - stage coaches; the two terms are inseparable.
Cobb & Co became a household name not long after the first coach left the Criterion Hotel in Melbourne for the Forest Hill (Castlemaine) diggings in 1854. The line was originally called ‘The American Telegraph Line of Coaches’ but was more frequently shortened to the name of its owners.
The name is born
‘Cobb’ was Freeman Cobb, and ‘Co’ (Company) referred to his associates John Peck, James Swanton and James Lambert. They were four young Americans who successfully established a service to the gold fields which had a reputation for being dependable, speedy and comparatively comfortable. Cobb imported coaches used in the American West. These had bodies that were comparatively lightweight and supple, resting on leather straps rather than on the
stiff, metal springs of the more commonly-used English coaches. They were better suited to the rougher Australian terrain and the tracks that passed for roads. The coaches, drawn by teams of horses, travelled from changing station to changing station located at regular intervals along their routes. Here a fresh team of horses was ready to continue the journey. Initially the line carried freight, passengers and mail, and provided a gold escort.
The business expands
The founders sold the business after a couple of years for the equivalent of 2.1 million dollars in today’s money but the name was retained.
American-born James Rutherford took over the line in 1861 and it was under Rutherford, and a consortium of partners, that the company grew to be the largest of its kind. Routes and services were extended throughout Victoria and into NSW, then Queensland, following the discovery of new goldfields and the movement of diggers. Rutherford moved the centre of the company from
Victoria to Bathurst where he established a coach-building factory. The company’s interests expanded. By securing the Royal Mail contract Cobb & Co, as a coaching line, was able to continue once the days of the gold rush were over. Coach schedules were set to ensure mail deliveries arrived on time not to suit the convenience of the passengers. As railways were introduced, the coach service did not compete over the same routes but provided a link from the rail terminals to destinations further afield.
Melbourne to the Mornington Peninsula
Cobb & Co came to the Peninsula in the early 1860s.
All coaches out of Melbourne now left from the Albion Hotel in Bourke Steet. A three-storey building with an arched façade, the hotel, on the north side of the street, acted as a terminus and depot. The booking office was in an adjoining building while the lane behind provided rear access. The main changing stations, or ‘stages’ were at Mordialloc and Frankston where fresh teams of horses were available. The number of horses in a team, generally between two and six, varied according to the load.
A notice in ‘The Argus’ for Wed. 9 July, 1862 announced:
“Cobb & Co Telegraph Line Coaches to and from Melbourne and Schnapper Point – A coach will leave Bay-street Station Brighton on the arrival of 8.30 a.m. train from Melbourne every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, for Schnapper Point. Returning will leave Rennison’s [Royal] Hotel every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8.00 am. For particulars inquire at Cobb & Co’s Office No 36 Bourke-street.”
A public notice in 1867 indicates that the service reached Dromana.
“Royal Mail Coach for Schnapper Point and Dromana leaves Cobb’s Office at 1 p.m. daily.”
Richard Watkin was noted as being ‘mine host’ of Dromana Hotel, the changing station for coaches serving the southern peninsula. Mrs Beecher, a woman in her 70s who lived in Red Hill, mentioned while reminiscing in 1935 that Cobb & Co coaches ran from Dromana daily and were the only means of transport to Melbourne via Schnapper Point. [Flinders Historical Society records]
In 1864 Mt Martha property owner, Alexander Balcombe asked his wife to let him know if she was returning to Schnapper Point (Mornington) from Melbourne on the coach or by steamer so that she could be met.
In 1868 a letter from the school in Schnapper Point sent a request to authorities for books for the school to be sent by Cobb & Co’s coach instead of the steamer.
The Royal Hotel was the main Cobb and Co depot in Schnapper Point. Sitting on three and a half acres it had extensive yards and substantial stables that adjoined the hotel building. In 1876 the coach left at 6.00 a.m. arriving at the Albion Hotel in Melbourne at midday. It then departed at 2.00 p.m. to arrive back at Schnapper Point by 7 p.m.
From Melbourne to Western Port
A second route opened by Cobb & Co. serviced the Western Port side of the Peninsula. This route to Hastings followed the same track from Melbourne with stages at Mordialloc and Frankston, then came across country to Somerville and on to Hastings. Topography often determined the route commonly followed. Between Somerville and Hastings the coach veered further inland and followed a ridge to avoid the Tyabb waterholes and low-lying swampland, crossing paddocks to link up again with the main track. Horses could sink to their girths in the soggy ground. [Bruce Bennett: The Old General Store] . By 1872 Hastings had a Cobb & Co. depot and from Hastings the coach reached destinations further south. The service linked up with the regular ferry service to Corinella and Grantville (accessing South Gippsland) with calls at Griffiths Point (San Remo) and Cowes. A ferry service from Stony Point also connected with the Cobb & Co coach from Hastings. Sandy Point Road continued right to the Point through what is now the Western Park property and was the main route by 1872. [Rod Nuske – ‘The History of Sandy Point Road’]
Coach-Ferry links
The depot at Hastings included a coach station, repair shop and stables and was on land opposite what is now Pelican Park, near the jetty. The land, Lot 1, was owned by S Amess, a principal shareholder of the Western Port Steamship Company and also the owner of Churchill Island. The first steam ship to Cowes, the Sarah, connected with Cobb & Co. Unsurprisingly another shareholder was J. Roberts representing Cobb & Co.
By 1880 Hastings was the headquarters of fishing interests - “a hive of marine industry.” Fish was taken to Melbourne by various conveyances including a modified Cobb& Co coach.
The following timetable appeared in ‘The Argus’, Melbourne, Vic. Thursday, 29 December 1881
COBB AND CO’S COACHES - Schnapper Point, Dromana, Frankston, Hastings Lines On and after Monday next, 2nd January, 1882, COACHES will LEAVE Rennison’s Hotel, Mordialloc, for Schnapper Point, Frankston, Dromana daily (Sunday excepted) 2 p.m. returning from Dromana 5.45a.m. daily (Sunday excepted). And for Hastings, Frankston, Cowes, Griffiths Point &c, Tues., Thurs., Sat. 7.20 a.m., returning Mon., Wed., Fri. Passengers can book for coaches at Cobb and Co’s offices, Bourke Street east.
Destination Flinders
In the latter part of the 1870s and early 1880s the Tower House Hotel (now ‘Warrawee’) at Balnarring, was the staging point for Cobb and Co. between Hastings and Flinders. Paul Vansuylen was granted a publican’s licence to develop his homestead as an inn in 1872. His homestead had been the Post Office since 1868 and he also ran a store from there.
“The Tower House Hotel as it was known soon became a regular stopover for Cobb and Co coach drivers who would call in for an ale or two and to feed passengers and horses.” (Bruce Bennett: ‘ The Old General Store’)
The stables and yards adjoined the homestead and there was a blacksmith’s located close by.
Cobb & Co didn’t have a monopoly. Other coach services also operated but it would seem the name Cobb & Co continued to be used as there are continued references into the early 1900s.
“Coaches in the early 1900s were running every day. It was a fourhour trip from Bittern [to Flinders]. People needed refreshing so the hotel became the terminus. Cobb & Co had a coach service here as well as the Delaney’s and James Kennedy.” [Eric Lucas talking about Flinders (Flinders Local History News]
At Shoreham the old Cobb & Co. stables from the hotel at Flinders were moved from Flinders to a site near the post office.
They were later used as cow bails by the Hitchcock family.
Mrs T. C. Cole spoke of the journey by coach: “It was a long and tedious journey from Bittern Railway Station to Flinders – big lumbering coaches with two horses.” She also mentions holidays at Flinders taken in her early childhood. We would go for lovely picnics – usually in a big red Cobb & Co coach with about four horses, and seats high up on the outside of the coach.” The picnic destination was Barkers’ homestead.
Homestead stops
Did the coaches actually call at some of the homesteads? The roads to the homesteads were well-defined tracks and well-used in days of early settlement.
“In earlier days passengers would have had to travel to Coolart by coach then by horse-drawn buggy along the beach’ to the ferry. [Rod Nuske ‘History of Sandy Point Road]
Maie Casey, in her memoirs, writes of the period 1862 – 1875. “The men travelled to Coolart by buggy or ridden horse or sometimes in stages by the coaches of Cobb & Co.”
Merricks Beach has a street called Minto Street. It has been said that it was the route taken by the Cobb & Co coach to ‘Minto’ homestead, home of the Cole family,
Between Mornington and Mt Martha is The Briars homestead and below the homestead a ford crosses Balcombe Creek. This is said to have been along the track used by the Cobb & Co coach. The track led not only to the ford and a nearby spring, but took advantage of a valley to skirt the very steep incline along what would later become the Point Nepean Highway.
Memorable drivers
The coach drivers were well-known, often colourful characters who were remembered vividly in later days. As well as the mail and packages they brought news from one settlement to the next. In his history of Frankston, Don Charlwood mentions Mr R Parry (‘Dick the Coachman’) the coach driver from Mornington to Frankston and Mr W. Kellim, the driver to Hastings, both popular men. Was the latter perhaps William Heelan, mentioned in an article in the ‘Mornington Standard’ as a driver who ‘earned respect with all he came in contact” over his sixteen years as a driver on the Hastings run? ‘Hellfire Jack’, a relief driver on the Mornington run, had the reputation of being a fast and somewhat reckless driver.
‘Cabbage Tree’ Ned Devine was the legendary driver of the Leviathan. This super-size coach, which made its first run from Geelong to Ballarat on 30 December, 1859, was built to transport large numbers of travellers to the goldfields. The normal-size coach carried between six and fourteen passengers whereas the Leviathan had space for sixty. It had five rows of seats inside and seven rows outside on the roof and was pulled by a team of eight horses although at times twelve might be used.
While the Leviathan could accomodate up to 60, there were times when a standard coach could be overcrowded, particularly when Chinese miners were bound for the diggings.
A certain romance has sprung up around the coach travel of a previous era - the loading of the coach, excitement of departure to the crack of the whip, the coachman’s colourful language, the rolling motion of the coach. The name Cobb & Co also evokes tales of bail-ups by bushrangers, although none are associated with travel on the Peninsula.
The physical hazards found in other runs were also absent on the Peninsula.
A fatality
However, the ride could be perilous. In April 1884 a fatal accident occurred on the run from Schnapper Point to Frankston. The coach, driven by James Grogan left Schnapper Point on time. It stopped to pick up a passenger, Miss Lillie Coates, near ‘Manyung’ where she had been visiting the Grice family. She asked to ride outside on the box seat with the driver. On a steep section of road, about half a mile from Frankston, a calf ran onto the road and one of the two horses shied. The young woman grabbed at the reins causing the horses to jerk around. The driver’s foot slipped on the brake and he was thrown to the road leaving the coach to careen toward a narrow turn in the road where it hit a projecting bank and overturned. Luckily none of the inside passengers were injured but the young woman was found dead under the wheel of the coach where she had been thrown by the impact. The driver, described as an experienced and careful driver, suffered cracked ribs and a severe head wound. He was taken to a Melbourne hospital by train from Frankston.
The service declines as railways expand
As the railway network expanded, coaches continued to transport customers, mail and freight to places beyond the railheads.
David Munro, who built the line to Hastings through to Stony Point, had to pay a penalty if work fell behind schedule. That was to pay Cobb and Co three shillings (3/-) per passenger from Hastings to the nearest rail station (Mornington Junction). [Toni Munday’s essay in ‘Mornington Peninsula Railways’]
Eventually the service couldn’t compete. Rail costs were 5d (five pence) for 24 miles, the steamer was 6d (six pence) for 22 miles while Cobb & Co. was 1/1 (one shilling and one penny) for 14 miles.
Cobb & Co coaches to Mornington continued until the railway opened in 1889. Services to the Peninsula ceased in 1890, a fact lamented in the ‘Sth Bourke & Mornington Journal’ of Wed. 9th July, 1890. “Two calamities have of late come over this progressive place, the one being the departure of Cobb & Co, the popular coach proprietors. The last contract to Flinders was completed with the ensuing contract being secured by Mr P. Kennedy of Shoreham.”
The second calamity concerned rail travel with its “abominable noise rendering conversation impossible” and the possible danger of travelling alone, especially if one of the feminine gender, in a compartment with a stranger.
The final run in Victoria of the distinctive red Cobb & Co coaches with its team of horses was made in 1916 from Casterton to Mt Gambier in S.A.
References:
Bennet, Bruce: The Old General Store
Records from:
Balnarring and District Historical Society
Dromana and District Historical Society
Flinders and District Historical Society
Hastings and Western Port Historical Society
Contemporary newspaper articles
