royal

John Palmer, a theatre owner from Bath, believed that the coach service he had previously run for transporting actors and materials between theatres could be used for a countrywide mail delivery service, so in 1782, he suggested to the Post Office in London that they take up the idea. He met resistance from officials who believed that the existing system could not be improved, but eventually the Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Pitt, allowed him to carry out an experimental run between Bristol and London. Under the old system, the journey had taken up to 38 hours. The coach, funded by Palmer, left Bristol at 4 pm on 2 August 1784 and arrived in London just 16 hours later. Impressed by the trial run, Pitt authorised the creation of new routes. By the end of 1785, there were services from London to Norwich, Liverpool, Leeds, Dover, Portsmouth, Poole, Exeter, Gloucester, Worcester, Holyhead and Carlisle. A service to Edinburgh was added the next year and Palmer was rewarded by being made Surveyor and Comptroller General of the Post Office. Australia's first mail coach was established in 1828 and was crucial in connecting the remote settlements being established to the larger centers. The first mail contracts were issued and mail was transported by coach or on horseback from Sydney to the first seven country post offices – Penrith, Parramatta, Liverpool, Windsor, Campbelltown, Newcastle, and Bathurst. In 1863 contracts were awarded to the coaching company Cobb & Co to transport Royal Mail services within New South Wales and Victoria. These contracts and later others in Queensland continued until 1924 when the last service operated in western Queensland. The lucrative mail contracts helped Cobb & Co grow and become an efficient and vast network of coach services in eastern Australia. In Great Britain, Ireland, and Australia, a mail coach was a stagecoach built to a General Post Office-approved design operated by an independent contractor to carry long-distance mail for the Post Office. Mail was held in a box at the rear where the only Royal Mail employee, an armed guard, stood. Passengers were taken at a premium fare. There was seating for four passengers inside and more outside with the driver. The guard's seat could not be shared. This distribution system began in Britain in 1784. In Ireland, the same service began in 1789, and in Australia, it began in 1828. Royal Mail coach services reached their peak in the later decades of the 19th century, operating over thousands of miles of eastern Australia. In the 1870s Cobb & Co's Royal Mail coaches were operating some 6000 horses per day and travelling 28,000 miles weekly carrying mail, gold, and general parcels. Some Concord stagecoaches were imported from the United States and made in New Hampshire by the Abbot-Downing Company. This design was a 'thorough-brace' or 'jack' style coach characterized by an elegant curved lightweight body suspended on two large leather straps, which helped to isolate the passengers and driver from the jolts and bumps of the rough unmade country roads. Soon Australian coach builders using many of the Concord design features customised the design for Australian conditions. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_coach

In 1946, the Premier of Queensland, Ned Hanlon, offered the post of Governor of Queensland to Lieutenant General Sir Leslie Morshead, who declined. Hanlon then offered the post to Lavarack, who accepted and was sworn in on 1 October—the second Australian-born person to hold a governorship in Australia (Sir John Northcott had been made Governor of New South Wales two months previously).[6] After completing his five-year term in 1951, Lavarack's governorship was extended by another five years to 1956. In February 1952, he proclaimed Queen Elizabeth II as the monarch in Queensland, following the death of her father King George VI. Lavarack's oath of allegiance and oath of office was then re-administered (at his request) to reflect the new monarch.[7] He was then reappointed for a further year from 1 October 1956, but due to ill health, Lavarack only served four months of the extended term and was relieved of his duties on 25 January 1957 by his lieutenant governor, although he officially remained governor until September 1957. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lavarack

The Queensland itinerary featured Brisbane from 9-10 and 16-18 March, and the regional cities Bundaberg and Toowoomba on 11 March, Townsville on 12 March, Cairns on 13 March, and Mackay and Rockhampton on 15 March. The Queen traveled 2600 km by plane, and the Townsville–Cairns–Mackay legs on the Royal yacht. Despite the distance, the Queen’s trip never took her inland from the Queensland coast further than Toowoomba, but many Queenslanders traveled inland to see their Queen. Rockhampton marked the end of the tour of regional Queensland and the couple returned to Brisbane for a free day and then another day of engagements before departing for Broken Hill and Adelaide on 18 March. The scene of the couple leaving Queensland was described after the event with great emotion, ‘Elizabeth and Philip drove out along the crowded way from Government House to the airport, and as the singing of “God Save the Queen” came to its full-throated climax, there were many tears in their eyes.’ Perhaps over-protected from the heat and conditions of inland Queensland in 1954, the Queen's itinerary for later tours included Mount Isa and Longreach. Source: www.qhatlas.com.au/content/queen-queensland-1954

Women were involved with horse racing in Australia by the 1890s. Since then, they have owned horses, trained horses, gambled on horses and attended the races. Their participation in the sport was hampered because of a lack of facilities and participation rates were not as high as other sports. In 1940, a study of 314 women in New Zealand and Australia was done. Most of the women in the study were middle class, conservative, Protestant and white. The study found that 183 participated in sport. The third most popular sport that these women participated in was horse riding, with 38 having played the sport.[9] The ninth most popular sport that these women participated in was horse racing, with 3 having played the sport. The sport was tied with billiards, chess, fishing, field hockey, croquet, squash, table tennis and shooting. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_horse_racing_in_Australia