On The Road to The Diggings

Description

Limited Edition of 150 Reproductions each of 5 sizes, 750 total Only

In February 1881 gold was discovered at Mount Britton, and in April and May the rush was on. On the 14th May, Mackay’s Daily Mercury announced that Cobb & Co. was considering establishing a coach run to service the gold rush to Mount Britton.

At great expense Cobb & Co. shipped from Brisbane to Mackay over 50 horses and their sets of harness, 2 coaches and 2 drivers. In the first week of June over 400 men left Mackay to seek their fortune at Mount Britton. But the rush was short lived and the Daily Mercury was warning people not to go out to the diggings before the coach service even started.

The first coach left for Mount Britton from Will’s Hotel in Mackay at 8 am on the 27th June 1881 without a single passenger, but expected a full load on its return. The twice weekly service ran for 3 months. In this painting the Cobb & Co. coach is carrying passengers on the return trip to Mackay, leaving the distinctive ranges and peaks that surround Mount Britton in the distance.

A young man is riding out to the diggings leading a packhorse loaded with supplies, while boiling their billy under the gum trees are a pair of luckless prospectors who cannot afford the coach fare, for they like many others have failed to find gold, or have squandered what they did find among the many hotels that sprang up in the new township.