| Whiplash |
 |
| Syndicated |
| 1960 - 1961 |
| Drama |
| 30 Minutes |
Peter Graves starred as Christopher Cobb, an American who helped establish the
first stagecoach line across the rugged
Australian Continent during the 1850s.
Cobb's stagecoach line ran to a number of
cities and towns, including New South Wales,
Dubbo, Brisbane, Duranga, Goondiwindi, Cross
Creek Way Station, Canoomba, Mowamba,
Brindabella, Sydney and Wallaby Junction.
Dan Ledward and
Christopher Cobb
Cobb's sidekick was Dan Ledward (Anthony
Wickert). His father was the brutal leader of
Ledward Bore, a settlement of thugs and conmen.
Dan despised his father's ways and life in the
Bore and so Chris hired him as a driver for the
coach line.
As Cobb and Dan raced across the dusty trails
of down-under in a stagecoach, they encountered
bushrangers (outlaws), gunslingers, robbers and
swindlers and aborigines. When Cobb needed to
defend himself from nefarious sorts, he used a
bullwhip and a boomerang.
Besides his regular passengers, Cobb's
stagecoach line was used to transport miner's
gold, to carry freight supplies or commandeered
to transport prisoners.
Sometimes, Cobb went in search of people
missing in the outback. On one occasion, Cobb
sought a white man who was living
with an Aboriginal tribe and came across a
legendary gold deposit known as the "Dutchman's
Reef." Another time, Cobb tracked down the father
of a little girl (now motherless) who had taken
refuge with an Aborigine tribe when he was
falsely accused of murder. And Cobb also helped
Peter Hibbard, a once star driver for the Cobb
stage line, track down the suspected murderer of
his son.
Theme Song Lyrics
Whiplash, Whiplash, Whiplash,
Whiplash
In 1851 the Great Australian gold rush
The only law a gun, the only shelter wild bush
Whiplash, Whiplash
The Mulga woods and deserts, the stage thunders
by
From Sydney to Camden and on to Gundagai
Whiplash, Whiplash
At times, Cobb was in conflict with the
Aborigine customs and traditions. He came to the
rescue of a white man who had inadvertently
interrupted a sacred tribal ceremony and was
marked for death. Then Cobb undertook a
hazardous crossing of an Aboriginal burial
ground to assist a family in need. And when a
trusted Cobb & Co. agent disappeared in the ‘Taroomba,’
a sacred Aboriginal burial ground rich in opal,
Cobb sought him out.
Not all the Aborigines were hostile. When a
group of bushrangers captured a Cobb & Co. coach,
and use it in a series of raids and robberies
implicating Cobb, an Aborigine named Kuraba
helped Cobb track the bushrangers down before
they permanently damaged the stage line's
reputation.
TRIVIA NOTE: Filmed on location in
Australia, the series was loosely based on the
real Cobb & Co. stagecoach lines (founded by
Freeman Cobb in 1853) that traveled from
Melbourne to the Victorian goldfields. The
company shut down its services in 1924.
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