Cobb & Co Festival

August 2024 will mark 100 years since the last horse-drawn Cobb & Co mail coach kicked up dust on the dirt tracks of Outback Queensland, and to celebrate the centenary milestone a special ten-day Cobb & Co Festival will be staged.

The Cobb & Co Festival will run from Friday August 16 through to Sunday August 25 in the Maranoa region, 500km west of Brisbane.  The all-ages family friendly festival will culminate on August 24 and 25 with a re-creation 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.

The festival will immerse attendees in the rich tapestry of Australia's pioneering heritage, paying homage to the remarkable legacy of Australia's last horse-drawn mail service.

Mail will be collected from the Surat Post Office by a replica Cobb & Co coach from the Surat Cobb & Co Changing Station Museum pulled by three different teams of five specially trained horses 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.

"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.  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.

Our participants will make the trip across two days – camping in the bush on the journey, just as the travellers did all those decades ago.  It's going to be a once in a lifetime ride-along experience for keen horseriders, and for festival goers to witness the spectacle," said festival organiser Paul Masson.

Staged every 5 years since 2009 the Cobb & Co festival has been building to its biggest iteration in 2024 with the centenary celebrations.

The festival will kick off on Friday 16 August with the Cobb & Co Long Table Dinner under the stars with events including bullock wagons, a horse art exhibition, markets, coach rides, bush poetry, clay shooting, the Cobb & Co Festival Ball, period dress-up and live entertainment and an open-air concert taking place over the following ten days.

The Cobb & Co festival is a mix of free experiences and ticketed activities.  The full program will be released in April.

A special song written and performed by Golden Guitar-winning country music singer Josh Arnold for the Cobb & Co Centenary Celebrations titled Cobb & Co Country (see music clip here Cobb & Co Country) has already been released and has hit #1 on the Australian Country Radio charts.

What:                   2024 Cobb & Co Centenary Festival

Where:                Maranoa Region – including the towns of Surat and Yuleba

When:                  Friday 16^th August – Sunday 25^th August

More info:          www.cobbandcofestival.com.au