Cobb and Co – Final Farewell

Description

Limited Edition of 150 Reproductions each of 5 sizes Only – Total of 750

Cobb & Co. shipped over 50 horses and sets of harness from Brisbane to Mackay in June 1881 to service the gold rush to Mount Britton. The gold rush was short-lived, and was virtually over by the time the first coach left Mackay for the gold-mining town of Mount Britton on the 27th of June 1881.

The coach service was however welcomed by the residents along its route, as it was a reliable and convenient means of fast transportation of goods as well as people. A petition by residents of Mount Britton, Nebo and Eton was presented to the Post Master General, requesting that Cobb & Co. be subsidised to carry mail to the diggings (it was being delivered by packhorse).

Unfortunately for both the residents and Cobb & Co., the petition was unsuccessful. Failing to get the mail run, and with the gold rush over, the twice weekly service from Mackay to Mount Britton was terminated in September 1881, barely 3 months after it had started. The venture was a financial disaster for Cobb & Co.

This painting depicts the coach outside the Royal Mail Hotel at Mount Britton as it is about to depart for the last time, pulled by a matched team of splendid grey coachers, The wheelers have been hitched, and final farewells are being said as the groom leads the three leaders into position. This is one of a collection of twelve paintings called the MOUNT BRITTON COLLECTION that my husband Ron Marshall and I painted, of the pioneer gold town of Mount Britton near Nebo 100km west of Mackay.