August will mark 100 years since the final Cobb & Co mail coach kicked up dust on the dirt tracks of Outback Queensland.
The Cobb & Co Festival will run from August 16 to August 25 in the Maranoa region, 500km west of Brisbane.
The family friendly event will culminate with a re-creation of that last mail run on the 76-kilometre Cobb & Co Way, an historic route that runs between the towns of Surat and Yuleba.
Mail will be collected from the Surat Post Office by a replica coach and will be pulled by three different teams of specially trained horses who will be rotated every 10 kms throughout the two day trip.
The replica coach will follow a procession of more than 300 on horseback, in buggies and on wagon and bullocks to the Yuleba Post Office.
“Back in the day the Cobb & Co coach drivers had to battle bushrangers and extreme conditions in isolated regions to provide the all-important mail delivery service throughout the Outback,” said Paul Masson, Festival Organiser.
“Our re-creation is going to be much easier and more celebratory – but will be a definite nod to the essential and often dangerous service Cobb & Co drivers provided 100+ years ago.”
The festival will kick off on August 16 with events including bullock wagons, a horse art exhibition, markets, coach rides, bush poetry, clay shooting and the Cobb & Co Festival Ball.
