Blinman Mail Coach
Waler Data Base @ Facebook. Image: ‘…coach outside C. Faulkner Hotel, North Blinman. 1871.’ Photo by J.H.S. Blood. State Library S.A.
Blinman mail coach – operated in a tough dry area.
Blinman started as a mining town in 1859 after Robert Blinman – a shepherd for Angorichina Station known as Pegleg as he’d lost a leg – found a rock strongly streaked with copper and pegged a claim.
Mining began in earnest in 1862 and a town was born – the mine boom went until about 1907. From a population of about 1,500 at its peak, it’s now about 26 however has great tours of the mine and is in beautiful arid country, a loved visit by many – website in comments.
The mail was first carried to Blinman by horseback to and from Port Augusta – however the first mail coach got through in 1863 (not sure where from, prob. Port Augusta, ships bringing the mail to there), a year before the first mail coach arrived in Port Augusta – a Cobb & Co. coach from Adelaide driven by Hugh Williams. J. G. Terry took over from Cobb & Co. on this and the Blinman run, then they were taken over by Hill & Co. It only took a week for mail to get from Adelaide to Blinman by the coach routes, amazing.
For decades in Blinman the mail coach was a welcome sight, a service started about 1863. Hill & Co., famous South Oz coach line, ran the Blinman coach for decades; until a motor took over. In 1875 a second coach operator, Jackson & Co. of Burra started another coach service to Blinman, the rivalry lowered fares. There were also carriers for supplies and ore, and horse-feed which was always much in demand; although some carrier work was also done by coach services.
The mail coach also had to take sick people out, the closest doctor being at Hawker, 85 miles away – 136 k – such as during an 1887 typhoid outbreak. There was a blacksmith at Blinman, Bob Laidlaw. Plentiful services such as hotels, boarding house, stores.
The coach to Blinman set out from Darmody’s Hotel at Parachilna. It was a tough run as there was nowhere to change horses, and mostly very dry and hot. Before Terowie existed, horses were changed for the Blinman coach at Gottlieb’s Well, and several station owners collected the mail there.
Images: South Australian Register, 24th May, 1867; Blinman today
The coach to Blinman always carried a guard. Sometimes drought conditions, passengers had to walk beside the coach to save the horses, sometimes walking 18 miles. Indeed, due to lack of horse feed at times the coach service was cancelled not only on the Blinman run, but various linking mail coach runs from Adelaide.
Other times floods affected the service, in 1864 when Kanyaka Creek flooded, coachman Mr Freeman transferred mail and passengers to horses to continue. In 1869 the horses swum the flooded Kanyaka Creek dragging the coach across, and also passengers who’d been put out to cling to the back of the coach in the flood if they couldn’t swim.
There was a dangerous, steep sliding section where the guard once fell off the top of the coach, and at times passengers fell off; the driver had to tie a cord to the top rail and get passengers to pull it to prevent the coach tipping over. The coach route to Blinman was said to be the roughest in South Australia. Loads of fabulous stories in newspapers in archives.
At one stage of drought, 40 bullock teams were at Black Rock to take provisions to Blinman. Only one team survived.
Images: Evening Journal, 27th October, 1869
The mail coach route before Hawker was built, was from Burra via Yanyarrie (coach travelled across country, there was no track) to Kanyaka Station, to Wonaka Creek, thence via Arkaba and Wilpena to Blinman – Wilpena Pound then being a significant station. Other outlying stations had to ride a long way to wait for and meet the mail. It was a weekly service. In the greater area some mail runs were done on horseback, some with a buggy and pair.
Another tough coach run needing many good horses. Mail even went on from Blinman, for example Frank Booth delivered it from Blinman to The Peake on horseback.
