EDWARD Larkin had something to crow about when he drove his spanking brand-new coach into Wollongong town in 1861.
The English immigrant, living at Appin, had introduced a four horse, four wheeled coach to Wollongong, linking the isolated coastal settlement for the first time overland to Sydney with the latest and most comfortable in public transport.
Larkin's "Free Selection" was Illawarra's first known coach line that catered exclusively for passengers. His only real opposition came along a year later with James Woods' government contracted royal mail coach, "Invincible". Both plied the route between Wollongong, via Woonona, to Campbelltown station, linking Illawarra with the railway to Sydney.
Larkin must have been one proud coach driver when he pulled-up out front of the Harp Inn to pick-up his waiting passengers in Corrimal St almost 150 years ago.
Built by a Mr Parfitt of William St Sydney, his coach was said to have ran "particularly easy", was "free from jolting", and had "a most creditable and respectable appearance".
Edward Nicholas Larkin was from Sussex, England and migrated to NSW with his wife Jane and their two year old son, Edward junior, in 1837. Both were 24 years of age and had an exciting future ahead of them in their newly adopted country.
They made the Campbelltown area their home and, from around 1839, began operating windmills to grind locally grown grains. By 1846 Edward had built a post mill on his property, 1.5 kms south of Appin, along the main road between Wollongong and Campbelltown.
Larkin would have noticed Benjamin Rixon (Wollongong mail contractor from 1838 to about 1858) and later James Woods (who took over from Rixon) delivering the royal mail by horseback between the two centres, occasionally guiding travelers, and carrying them in primitive horse drawn coaches. It is no surprise where Larkin got his idea from to begin a coaching service linking Wollongong and Campbelltown.
The railway from Sydney had arrived to Campbelltown in 1858 and a new mountain road, known as Rixon's Pass, had been opened for wheeled traffic at Woonona.
Although James Woods was operating the royal mail coach - occasionally carrying passengers - Larkin became the first exclusive passenger service linking Wollongong and Campbelltown from about 1858.   
Larkin announced his intentions of updating his coach with the latest in public transport in January 1860.
At the age of 47, he eventually replaced his first vehicle with "a four-wheeled coach" known as Free Selection in April 1861.
Business prospered for Larkin and it wasn't long before he came up against some fierce opposition.
James Woods the mail contractor also began running a four-horse passenger coach in direct competition with Larkin from April 1 1862. Woods' Invincible passenger coach left Campbelltown and Wollongong on the same days as Larkin's Free Selection vehicle.
Fares between the two centres were nine shillings one way. Booking Offices for Woods' coach were at the Emu Inn, Sydney, Butchers Arms Campbelltown, Railway Hotel, Appin, and the Commercial Hotel, Wollongong.
Free Selection and Invincible, packed with passengers, left Wollongong at 9am, an hour later arriving at Woonona, before ascending Rixon's Pass and negotiating unbridged creeks and bushranger infested territory on the escarpment. The coaches would take over five hours to reach Appin from Woonona, and another two hours to arrive at Campbelltown Railway Station from Appin. The entire journey would be an eight hour ordeal.
Bushrangers were a constant threat. Woods' driver, James Camapary was shot in the shoulder during a robbery on the road between Appin and Campbelltown in 1862. He recovered, but if it wasn't bushrangers the coach drivers had to deal with, it was bushfires and flooded creeks.
Passengers were detained for nearly three hours in consequence of bush fires holding up the coach on the escarpment between Woonona and Appin in November 1862. Riders were often sent ahead to check the varicosity of the fires before the coach could proceed.
The mountain pass was also a major obstacle. In wet weather, when the road became a quagmire of mud, passengers were required to jump from the coach and help push the vehicle up the pass. Descending the mountain passes of Rixon's - and later - Bulli (which opened in 1868) was just as bad.
Logs were tied to the back of the coach to slow the progress of the vehicle descending and on many occasions coaches tipped, injuring passengers and the drivers.
Edward Larkin entered a new phase in his life in 1863. With prominent Sydney engineer, William Wakeford, he went into partnership to establish a contracting company, Larkin & Wakeford of Burwood, Sydney.
With Larkin's departure from the coaching industry, two new enterprising businessmen obtained the Wollongong/Sydney mail contract from Larkin's main competitor. George Organ and his son-in-law James Rixon took over the contract from James Woods in July 1863.
Meanwhile, Larkin & Wakeford's first contract was to take over the NSW Government's Great Southern Railway from Thirlmere to Bargo in February 1863 and then followed a contract to construct the railway to Mittagong for a total of £91,925 later that year.
Other contracts followed, including the construction of the railway to Wingecarribee (Moss Vale) in 1865.
On his retirement the former Wollongong/Campbelltown coach operator had by this time become a wealthy man and retired to the Campbelltown district where he died in 1885 aged 72. His wife, Jane died in 1894, while their only son, Edward Junior had died in 1852 aged just 17.