Expansion of Cobb & Co.
The founders of Cobb & Co. sold out in 1856 for a huge profit. In 1862 Cobb and Co. manager, James Rutherford, another American, extended coaching routes into New South Wales. He established his home in Bathurst, and built the largest coach factory in the Southern hemisphere. Cobb & Co. also built workshops at Hay and Bourke in New South Wales and Castlemaine in Victoria, and coach routes criss-crossed both colonies.
The first Cobb & Co. coach in Queensland ran from Brisbane to Ipswich on the first of January 1866. At Ipswich, passengers and mail were transported by railway to Grandchester, the end of the rail line at that time. The journey then continued on another Cobb & Co. coach from Grandchester to Toowoomba.
Cobb & Co continued to follow the gold rushes. Coaching routes were established to Gympie in 1869; Clermont and Copperfield in the Central districts of Queensland in the 1870s; and Palmer River, Charters Towers and Croydon in the far north of the State by the 1880s.
Within twenty years, Cobb & Co. routes covered the colony of Queensland. Major depots were established at Barcaldine, Longreach, Winton and Charleville, which was also home to Cobb & Co's coachworks from the 1880s.
At the turn of the century, the company operated 39 routes in Queensland, covering 7,750 km from railheads to distant communities in the outback. Averaging two services per week on each route, Cobb & Co. would harness 9, 000 horses and travel over 31,000 kms every week.
