ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

THE END OF THE ROAD ….Maureen Clifford © The Scribbly Bark Poet

The carriage lamps of Cobb and Co are fading
the jingle of the harness heard no more,
all horses have been turned out in the paddock
one coach now stands deserted by the door.
The hames and harness are dusty and mouldy
red leather seats are cracked and worn with age,
life has moved on and now we travel faster
it’s just life turning yet another page.

Around her in the shed lies scattered lumber
and cobwebs festoon paintwork once so bright,
she rests alone - her once majestic presence
diminished in the early morning light.
No more is heard the drivers friendly urging
to horses that are now long dead and gone.
She rests alone, abandoned and forgotten -
the motor vehicle sang her swan song.

Goodonya Maureen.

When I was young ( I really was once ) my grandmother told me that she travelled from Lithgow to Bathurst on a Cobb and Co coach for her honeymoon trip. She said the driver tied a tree on behind as a sort of brake drag when they when down the steep side of the mountains.

There is a genuine Cobb and Co coach at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. The right half is newly painted in a red colour the other half has been left untouched to show the condition when the coach was salvaged. The seats don't look like leather, just hard boards

We've got one here at Rosewood as well in its own display home in the CBD. It gets used on festival days etc and is in good nick It's lovely to see them isn't it.

But for an Aussie icon Maureen, the story is a bit mixed.
The company was established in Melbourne by an American, Freeman Cobb, with Australian partners. The coaches were made in America, they were Concord coaches and imported.
I can remember years ago that there was a TV show called Whiplash, about a bloke called Christopher Cobb who heroically drove the stage coaches in Oz land. Although made in Australia, the film starred an American actor Peter Graves. Graves' brother James Garner was also a cowboy role actor in the US.
Peter Graves managed to get the old stockwhip going.

just a couple of technicalities Maureen, I think the harness you refer to as 'hanes' actually should be 'hames'. I also wonder why you refer to the scattered timber as lumber, an american term which could be substituted for timber without affecting your poem.

Good pick up Ross on hames - thank you . Lumber v timber - never really thought about it as you say either would work as well - means the same thing.