Sunday Times, 23 August 1936, page 20
Drove Coach For Cobb & Co
Thousands of Miles Through the Outback by Coach
F. A. CREWS LOOKS BACK ON PIONEERING DAYS – A link with coaching days of sixty years ago is provided by Mr Frederick Albert Crews, of Outram Street, West Perth, who has crowded varied experiences in South Australia, N.S.W. and Western Australia into his 85 years on this globe. Mr Crews, who celebrated his diamond wedding last month, covered many thousands of miles of the outback in an age when the horse was king of the road, and in his younger days was a driver of one of the historic Cobb and Co’s coaches.
Frederick and Louisa Crews on their diamond wedding anniversary – Photo TROVE
Born at Plympton, near Adelaide, in 1851, Frederick Crews turned his hand to hard work at an early age. At eight years he knew how to plough, and when 15, at an age when many boys today are deep in their studies and sports, he drove a two-horse dray carrying road metal. Eighteen years of age saw him leaving the parental roof to join the service of Cobb and Co., whose coaches he drove over long journeys to new townships which sprang up with the opening of mines and the development of other natural resources
Frederick Crews driving a coach in Renmark SA – Photo Ancestry.com
Then for some years he drove a 30-passenger coach running between Adelaide and Strathalbyn. Later he secured, on his own account, the mail contract to Coorong (South Australia), this being part of the overland mail from Adelaide to Victoria and necessitating covering 1200 miles a week. Mr Crews’ next venture was the mail coach between Terowie (South Australia) and Wilcannia, on the River Darling, in New South Wales, a distance of 350 miles. That was before Broken Hill’s rise to fame. Then for three years he ran the coach between Morgan and Wentworth (180 miles).
Frederick Crews and fellow Cobb and Co Coach driver James Nicholls – Photo Ancestry.com
ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY
What happiness and sorrow Mr Crews must have seen in the thousands of miles he covered atop a coach in the pioneering days. The year 1895 saw Mr Crews turn his activities to Western Australia, where the gold boom was proving a magnet to thousands of people from other Australian States and from overseas. He successfully tendered for the mail contract from Mt. Magnet to Lake Darlot, via Lawlers, a distance of about 230 miles, with the return trip to be covered each week. For six years he ran this coach till the service was discontinued. Mr Crew then turned his attention to the land and, as a squatter, had considerable success. His family joined him in WA in 1903. He became interested in several stations and one, Utalpa, he sold for £20,000 cash. Today he holds a half interest in Paroo Station between Wiluna and Meekatharra.
Crews & Moorhouse Parcel Carriers in Perth WA 1900 – Frederick Crews was part owner – Photo Ancestry.com
Family History:
Frederick Albert CREWS was born on 8 Nov 1851 in Plympton, South Australia, to John Foal CREWS and Catherine Dorcas nee RICHARDSON. His father was from Devon in England. On 25 Jul 1876 in Blakiston, South Australia, he married Louisa WIGZELL, also a South Australian girl, the daughter of Jesse WIGZELL and Jane nee WILLIAMS. The couple were to have the following seven children, all born in South Australia:
Frederick Herbert CREWS born 1877 died aged 5 yrs (buried with Percy)
Florence Louise CREWS born 1878
Percy Edgar Wigzell CREWS born 1880 died aged 7 months (buried with Frederick)
Clarence Victor CREWS born 1881
Stanley Royden CREWS born 1885
Myrtle Lillian CREWS born 1889
Reginald Wigzell CREWS born 1890
Frederick’s wife, Louisa, died in June 1938, aged 81, and Frederick died in 1942, aged 91, both in Perth, WA. They are buried in the Karrakatta Cemetery in a double plot in the Anglican Section.
Frederick and Louisa Crews – Karrakatta Cemetery, Perth WA – Photo Find a Grave
Recommended Reading:
Cobb and Co in the Golden West – Available from Hesperian Press
The WA coaching companies covered immense distances in scarcely explored country. Among them was the WA Cobb and Co run by Nicholas and Kidman. This collection of reminiscences, reports, timetables, adverts, etc is heavily illustrated. An essential volume on bush history and transport.
Moya Sharp
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