OLD COACHING DAYS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22203, 5 March 1934, Page 10

OLD COACHING DAYS

IN THE TIME OF "COBB'S", RELICS AND THEIR STORY' < THE EARLY RIJSH FOR GOLD. The repeated, demolition of-the old bluestone .buildings' of Melbourne to make way ,for; modern shops' and" warehouses of concrete emphasises the need for preserving and v marking some; of the more significant of these relics. One of the least spoilt corners of old Melbourne, passed every day by thousands of people who "are unaware of its existence, says the Argus, is the entrance to Cobb's stables in Lonsdale street. No stone or tablet tells its history. In the Public L/brary an etching by Victor Cobb shows the entrance as it used to be in the fifties, when it was used by the coaches that took thousands of gold-struck clerks, labourers, sailovs and miners to the diggings at Bendigo. Except that one of:the large arches has been bricked up the ( entrance,looks much the same to-day as it did then. '. .The entrance arch that remains intact is situated behind the Commonwealth Hotel, formerly Hockin's Hotel, one of the oldest hotels in Melbourne, which is on the corner of Elizabeth and Lonsdale streets. The stone cobbles are the same as .they used to be, worn smooth by the rumbling of iron wheels. The gnnter port of Cobb's original stable still standd behind the arch, where ( they now serve is an iron store.

Traces of the. horse stalls, hay loft, and smith's forgj are visible. A stone's throw away in Little Lonsdale street is the row of coachmen's cottages occupied by Cobb's drivers in the fifties. A plumber now uses them as a workshop, and behind them is a store that stands on the site of the corral in which the horses were grazed. Relics of the coaching days abound in this neighbourhood. The old Buck's Head Hotel, which still has its name, much the worse" for age, painted on the wall, stands at 290 Little Lonsdale street. The old-world courtyard is practically unchanged-since the hotel was crowded with excited miners 80 years ago, although the license to sell liquor was taken away from the house years ago.. Across the lane, at the back of the house, is a small stable, said to have been used by Cobb's coaches, still fitted with the original wooden horse stalls, hay loft, and'iroti rings in the wall for tethering the horses. In spite of its modern use as a motor-spraying shop' it is 1 one of the quaintest pieces of early Melbourne, redolent with memories of vanished days.