General News
12 August, 2026
CLOPPING ALONG COUNTRY ROADS
THE ROMANTIC era of horse-drawn coach travel is back in the Loddon Shire.
THE ROMANTIC era of horse-drawn coach travel is back in the Loddon Shire.
Matthew and Sarah Jones have swapped the growing bustle of sprawling commuter town Kilmore for the real country lifestyle of Bridgewater.
And with them have come sons Jackson and Harrison and the famous Cobb and Co name that transported people to the central Victorian goldfields in the 1850s and a stable of horses.
Their Cobb and Co coach has already made a trip into town and been spotted being driven along back roads when Matthew’s team of horses are not at weddings around Melbourne.
“We’ve had people coming up to say how wonderful it is to see our horses and coach around,” he said.
The third-generation horseman - and one-time rodeo circuit rider - grew up around Axedale and had been wanting to return to the region.
“We enrolled the children at school in Bendigo this year ahead of buying the Bridgewater property big enough for our 20 horses,” he said.
“We’re loving the move here and want to be involved in the community.
Matthew said his business Cobb and Co Carriages Victoria commercial tours had a distinct history and personal relationship to our Australian history.
“The founder of the business was Ben Hall the grandson of the great infamous bushranger Ben Hall. We bought the business off Ben ... we have been on movie sets and advertisements.
“The original Cobb and Co. Coaches venture is still a highly regarded Australian icon and the romance of coach travel is still used to promote tourism to Australia today – long after the last coach finished it’s route.”
The last Cobb and Co route was in Queensland and closed in 1924.
The return of horse-drawn carriages on Loddon roads has evoked memories of the pioneering Rod and Isabell Dovey’s Colonial Way tourist rides that ran between 1997 and 2003.
- CHRIS EARL
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