Australian Carriage & Harness Supplies

06/09/2026

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Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there. This is father and son (both called) Robert Matthews, with their horses including Gyp, Royal and Judy at Brimpaen, c. 1900. State Library of Victoria image H89.292/7.

06/09/2026

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Country Mail and Passenger Coaches, Franklin Street, Adelaide (c.1905)

Franklin Street is shown around 1905 with horse-drawn country mail and passenger coaches preparing to depart. The coaches are loaded with travellers and luggage, reflecting the important role of road transport before automobiles became dominant. Franklin Street was closely connected with Adelaide's transport and commercial activity during this period. Country coaches provided essential connections between the capital and communities throughout South Australia. Travellers would have depended on scheduled coach services for journeys to areas not yet conveniently served by railways. The horses, coaches and luggage create a vivid picture of early twentieth-century travel. The scene also illustrates how different Adelaide's transport system looked before widespread motorisation. This photograph provides a valuable record of the final years of the horse-coach era in the city.

Note: This photo has been upscaled and colourized from the original historic photograph.

05/09/2026

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'C. J. Newis horse and dray.'

Blacktown City Libraries

Newis and Sons had a sawmill operating in Blacktown in the early 1900's. They delivered logs to other sawmills, as well as processing them into framing timber, weatherboards, palings and grape stakes, and delivering to buyers. The family gradually opened other sawmills throughout the wider area, such as at Rooty Hill and Cabramatta.

They also delivered firewood. C.J. Newis set up a sawmill behind the Imperial Hotel, Richmond, in 1926.

The Newis family won first prizes at Blacktown Show with horses, such with a draught gelding, tandem driving horses and riding galloway size horses.

Obviously a draught horse.

05/09/2026

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One of the coaches of James Lyall at Balmoral, c1905. Lyall operated a coach service between Apsley and Hamilton. One of his is sons is the driver in this instance and may be William Lyall who I know followed his father into the coach driving business. William died in his sleep in 1908 at his home at Edenhope at the age of thirty.

In 1915, after 46 years in the horse and coach business, James Lyall purchased a Willy's motorised utility with a coach body for the mail run between Hamilton and Harrow. With an average speed of 18 miles per hour, the coach created a lot of interest when it stopped in Gray Street, Hamilton for the first time in March 1915. The motorised coach left Hamilton at 7.30am and arrived in Harrow at 1.00pm.

Hamilton to Harrow-Motor Mail Service-Hamilton Spectator-25 March 1915 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article119838296

05/09/2026

'Rose Bridge, Tanunda, c. 1905.'

Photo by D.F.F. Oldon.
State Library S.A.

03/09/2026

The carriage works of F. Morse & Co. coach builders in Lava Street, Warrnambool, c1897.

Casterton-born Frederick Doyle Bayfield Morse went into business in Warrnambool in 1883, and by 1896, he had 27 staff. With the arrival of the motor car, Frederick transitioned, adding a motor garage and repair shop to his business. Frederick, who was also a Warrnambool councillor, died in 1945. His son continued the business, and by 1947, F. Morse Pty Ltd was one of the biggest builders of milk trailers in Victoria and also built 1000 trailers for the armed services during WWII.

Photographer: Joseph Jordan

📷State Library of Victoria https://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/245574