The Sir George holds the record for the longest held hotel license by one family in Australia. If these walls could talk, how many stories might they tell…

These tags unearthed in the restoration of The Sir George stables built in 1845 have become quite a mystery to us. Their specific use is unknown but we’re fairly sure it has something to do with stalling horses. The stables became a Cobb and Co post in the early 1860’s.

Can anyone out there shed some light on our historical find?  *UPDATE*
Thanks to Mnt Taylor Stebbing we have found the answer to our mystery. Thank you for helping us, what a great discovery!

These tags were put onto horses head stalls when they came off the coaches. All horses were given a 48 hour break before being harnessed for the next trip.

Lowest number example: 1 to 6 would be the next harnessed. There was normally three changes of six horses, so 36 tags in all.

There is a lot of info on the Cobb and Co change stations and their horses and this is just one little bit of that history. These tags are very rare, not many survived.