Thousands of history-loving Australians will gather in regional Queensland to recreate the final journey of the nation's most iconic stagecoach service.
Cobb & Co transported goods, mail and people throughout eastern Australia during the late 19th century before closing its doors 100 years ago, marking the end of the stagecoach industry in Australia.
It was first established during the Victorian gold rush by American immigrant Freeman Cobb and a group of associates in 1853 and later expanded to NSW and Queensland under the leadership of fellow American James Rutherford.
The service had become an icon of Australiana by the end of the 19th century, inspiring colonial era-creatives like Tom Roberts and Henry Lawson.
But as railways and Qantas - founded in 1920 - began to render stagecoaches obsolete, it was gradually forced to downsize, shuttering operations in NSW and Victoria.
The nation’s final stagecoach run travelled from the town of Surat to Yuleba in southern Queensland on August 14, 1924.
Cobb & Co Festival will be held across the Maranoa region in south Queensland, culminating in a two-day, 76-kilometre horseback recreation of the famous journey.
The festival, which has run every five years since 2009, has already sold out.
"I'm getting calls from as far north as Greenvale and as far south as Melbourne," organiser Paul Masson told AAP.
Among the guests is Queensland Governor Jeannette Young, who will give an address at the festival on August 25.
"People are stepping back in time, they're getting dressed up and really it's going to be fantastic."
Mr Masson’s ancestors worked at the Cobb & Co changing station in Yuleba, and the service is a point of pride for the local community.
Australia Post has announced a commemorative stamp set honouring the service, to be released at the festival.
The Royal Australian Mint also released a limited edition $1 coin on Wednesday, and will mint just 35,000.
Queensland Museum Cobb+Co's transport curator Amy Goldston said the service was a "lifeline" for rural communities that couldn’t be reached by train.
"Cobb & Co was a very big part of life in rural and outback Queensland because it was the only source of how you got your information and your mail," Ms Goldston said.
The reliability with which it reached these communities gave the name an association with quality which led to it being repurposed by other unrelated businesses, some as far away as South Africa and Japan.
"That Cobb & Co brand, they used it for leather-working goods and clocks," she said.
"It was supposed to be something that you would associate with high quality goods, something that you can rely on."
But the fondness people have for the service also reflects a general nostalgia for the stagecoach era, Ms Goldston said.
"There's something about horses and actually being in a coach that people did find romantic ... sitting next to the driver and hearing all the stories."
Queensland Museum Cobb+Co will hold its own celebration of the service, titled Cobb 100, from August 14-17.
