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Appendix B TRANSPORTATION
B.O Introduction
Carriers and coachlines naturally played a major part in the development
and survival of Milparinka. From the initial rush to Mount Browne until
sometime during or shortly after World War I the town was a major change
for coaching operations, and the difficulties of transportation are a
recurring theme in local newspapers, and in mining and other official
records.
Up to three coaching companies and a variety of carriers served the town
and the surrounding pastoral stations at anyone time. Camel- and horsedrawn
stage coaches, occasionally replaced by pack-horses, buggies and
traps operated regular passenger and mail services. These were displaced
only slowly, the change commencing around 1916 when a motorised
'Charabanc' began out of Cobar to Milparinka. Records from Milparinka
Public School suggest these were probably part of an extensive network
which Morrison Brothers developed centred on Broken Hill shortly after
World War 1. By 1891 coaches from Wilcannia connected at Cobham
Lake with a service from Broken Hill. The Wilcannia coach continued on to
Milparinka and to Tibooburra. From Milparinka it was possible also to travel
to Bourke via Wanaaring by coach, and to Thargomindah via Tibooburra.
Goods were carried along similar routes using bullock, horse and camel
teams. Camels were also used in 'strings' as pack animals throughout the
period covered by my research. Bullock teams were used extensively in
less dry periods, but horse teams appear to have been uncommon.
B.1 Mail Coaches
A number of references suggest travel by coach was not always pleasant.
However, Ne! Barlow, who was a passenger on one of the last to operate
from Milparinka to Cobar, stated that the sensation of coach travel was not
one of being bounced around as of rocking - we 'just sat and hung on and
look(ed) out and slept' (Nel Barlow, personal communication, 1988).
Morrison Brothers owned one of the first coaches to operate from
Wilcannia to the Mount Browne diggings in 1881. The route continued to
be used by this organisation in competition with Kidman and Nicholas
('Cobb and Co') until at least December 1898 (Sturt Recorder, 10
December 1898:2)