History of Australia the new technologies of transport and communication. Coastal sailing ships were finally abandoned in favour of steam, and improvements in rail and motor transport heralded dramatic changes in work and leisure. In 1918 there were 50,000 cars and lorries in the whole of Australia. By 1929 there were 500,000. The stage coach company Cobb and Co, established in 1853, finally closed in 1924. In 1920, the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service (to become the Australian airline Qantas) was established. The Reverend John Flynn, founded the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the world's first air ambulance in 1928. Daredevil pilot, Sir
United Australia Party – Queensland of the Country Party Arthur Fadden, MP for the Queensland Division of Darling Downs, sought to merge the Country and United Australia parties into a single force. Only in Queensland did this yield much success with the two parliamentary parties forming the Country-National Organisation. The merger was not popular with all elements of the parties, with former federal Country MP James Hunter working hard for demerger, an aim achieved by 1944. A separate UAP reappeared but this was soon absorbed into the new Queensland People's Party set up by the Lord Mayor of Brisbane John Beals Chandler. In 1949 the