MAIL AND PASSENGER COACH FOR IPSWICH.—Mr. James Collins, contractor for the daily mail between this place and Ipswich, has purchased a suitable four-wheeled carriage for the conveyance of mails and passengers. The vehicle is light in construction, admirably adapted for the use for which it is intended, and fitted with seats, which are ornamented with red cushions. The trial trip proved very satisfactory, and we doubt not but that the public will show their appreciation of the enterprise by supporting the coach, which we have long desired to see established. We shall endeavour, by our next issue, to publish particulars of fares, times of leaving, time consumed on the journey, and keep the new conveyance before the public in proper form.
It seems risible now – Ipswich and Brisbane are connected by road, rail, river and air. People living in Ipswich commute daily to Brisbane by car and train. Out of peak hours, it can take about 35 minutes by car.
There are five major arterial roads that meet in Ipswich today, but in 1860 the state of our highways was quite primitive. Travellers would stop at inns for the night in what are now outer suburbs. The roads of the south-east were reasonably free of bushrangers – populated centres and a lack of gold mines saw to that – but it was still a long journey on horseback.
For those who preferred a peaceful river journey to the harum-scarum of bouncing around on carriage springs over rutted roads, there had been a regular steamer to Ipswich since free settlement. And it had classes of passenger, too.
The railways would come, but all of the infrastructure had to be built by men with bullock drays and horses. Smooth, macadamised roads with overhead lighting and traffic lights were beyond imagination.
Moreton Bay Courier (Brisbane, Qld. : 1846 – 1861), Saturday 27 June 1846, page 1
Moreton Bay Courier (Brisbane, Qld. : 1846-1861), Saturday 04 February 1860, page 2
Moreton Bay and More 