INTERVIEWS AND IMAGES/TV VISION AND CROSSES AVAILABLE

EVENT COLOUR:

Cobb & Co horse drawn coaches, re-creation of the last Cobb & Co run in Australia – accompanied by hundreds of people on horseback and with coaches (and including a mock bushranger hold-up), camel drawn Cobb & Co coach, bullocky teams, wool bails pulled by Clydesdale horses, a steam train run into Yuleba, people in period costumes from the 1800’s, concerts (including Josh Arnold performing his hit song Cobb & Co Country) and family fund day activities including markets, bowls days, long table and campfire dinners in the bush and more!

TALENT OPTIONS BELOW:

• Paul Masson – Festival Organiser
• Don Ross – 90 year-old coach driver and horse trainer.  Don has been driving coaches since he was a young boy – and will be taking the reins with his son at the 100^th anniversary Cobb & Co Festival this weekend.  He will take the first leg of the re-encactment of the last Cobb and Co mail run.
• Steven Ralph – Horse drawn coach builder and driver. Steve lives on an original Cobb & Co change station near the Sunshine Coast where he breaks in wild horses to pull coaches as well as making and driving coaches.  He will drive one of the teams on the Cobb & Co re-enactment.

In 1988 Steve was the first person to reinact a Cobb & Co coach route travelling from Melbourne (via Sydney and Brisbane) out to Yuleba and Surat where the upcoming centenary festival will be staged – crossing the Harbour Bridge in his Cobb & Co coach along the way.

He also created a world record by riding 24 horses with his coach between Yuleba and Surat and he’s just about finished building the biggest Cobb & Co coach replica.

71 year-old Steve estimates he’s travelled a combined 15,000+kms in his Cobb & Co coach, provided coach and horses for more than 500 weddings and made more than 20,000 coach wheels.  He has made a hearse coach for a Jackie Chan movie, later used it for a funeral, and in 2001 featured in the recreation of Tom Roberts 1895 ‘Bailed Up’ masterpiece – a landscape painting of bushrangers holding up a Cobb & Co mail coach.

• Laura Rutherford – Direct decedent of transport pioneer James Rutherford, who purchased the Cobb & Co business as part of a syndicate in 1861.  James became General Manager of Cobb & Co and was integral in growing and expanding the business – and went on to be considered one of the wealthiest men of his time in NSW (he was Bathurst based).  James Rutherford was Laura Rutherford’s Great, Great, Great Grandfather.  Laura Rutherford is a 25 year-old physiotherapist who has recently re-located to Cairns for work.  Laura is a period costuming expert and has created the Costume Guide (available online on the Cobb & Co festival website with some easy suggestions for those wishing to participate in costume outfits) for the Centenary Celebrations.  Laura is a keen aerialist – performing on silks, as well as pole dancing.  Often in period outfit.

 

 

 

COBB & CO 100 YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS UNDERWAY THIS WEEK

Culminates Saturday August 24 and Sunday August 25  – news cameraman and photographer
on site capturing awesome content to share

 

 

WHO:                 

The 100 Year Anniversary Cobb & Co celebrations are underway in Outback Queensland with a range of activities leading into this weekend’s big Cobb & Co re-enactment of the last mail Cobb & Co mail run ever undertaken in Australia.

The historic Cobb & Co mail run re-enactment will be a 76 km trip – broken into 7 legs of approximately 10-12 kms – that will be undertaken by a replica Cobb & Co Coach and teams of five specially trained horses between the picturesque towns of Surat and Yuleba on the Cobb & Co Way this Saturday August 24 and Sunday 25.    See following highlights (interview talent list is above):

 

Friday August 23 activities – general public posting a letter to go on the Cobb & Co re-enactment mail run, teamsters in Suart, camel drawn Cobb & Co coach rides and Bullock team rides

Saturday August 24 activities – Draft horse drawn trailer loaded with wool bails (7am), hundreds of riders on horseback accompanying the Cobb & Co coach (7.25am), mail colletion from Surat Post Office (8.40am), passendgers loaded on the stage coach for the re-enactment hirostir ride (8.45am), Coaches cross Surat Bridge (9.10am), camel drawn Cobb & Co rides and bullock rides (from 9.30am throughout the day), 10.30am Josh Arnold performing his ‘Cobb & Co Country’ hit single plus general colour of steam train arrival, markets, open mic, bowls and more!

Sunday August 25 activities – Cobb & Co re-enactment run finale at the Family Fun Day Festival in Yuleba (10am commencement – Cobb & Co carriage arrives 12pm), steam train arrival, camel rides, historic motor car display, bullock wagon rides and more.

 

 

WHAT:                

The re-enactment of the last Cobb & Co mail run in Australia on the 76-kilometre Cobb & Co Way, an historic route that runs between the picturesque towns of Surat and Yuleba that will be the culmination

of the all-ages, family friendly festival in the Maranoa region, 500km west of Brisbane.

Mail will be collected from the Surat Post Office by a Cobb & Co coach and pulled by three different teams of five specially trained horses (including Don’s team) who will be rotated every 10 kms throughout the two-day trip.  The replica Cobb & Co coach will follow a spectacular cavalcade of more than 300 on horseback, in buggies and on wagon and bullocks to the Yuleba Post Office.

In celebration of the Cobb & Co festival’s 100th anniversary, Queensland Rail in collaboration with the Australian Railway Historical Society QLD (ARHS) will be running a heritage steam train to transport festival goers – this will be the first time in nearly 10 years a steam train has run past Toowoomba.  Locals will have the chance to travel between Yuleba and Roma on Sunday 25 August, for the Cobb & Co festival’s Family Finale Day.

Three-day package option which departs from Toowoomba on Saturday, 24 August and includes an overnight stay in Miles before stopping at Yuleba and Roma for the festivities is also available.

Limited edition Cobb & Co 100 Year Anniversary stamps and a coin have been released to mark the historic celebrations.

 

WHEN:

From now until Sunday August 25^th

The re-enactment runs across Saturday 24^th and Sunday 25^th August – with the big family fun day finale happening in Yuleba on Sunday

 

WHERE:

The Maranoa Region in Outback Queensland – including the towns of Surat and Yuleba

 

MORE INFO:

www.cobbandcofestival.com.au (tickets are available from this site)

For further information and media images/vision – please contact:

A PDF copy of the full program dates and activities is available on request.  All tickets can be purchase at www.cobbandcofestival.com.au