# East to West, and North to South by train in Australia



## mcropod (May 6, 2019)

This time tomorrow, on Tuesday evening, I will be aboard my first overnight train to start a journey which will see me cross Australia from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the Indian Ocean to the west, and then from the Timor Sea in the north to the Spencer Gulf in the south, an arm of the Southern Ocean.

I'll be starting the train trip in my home city of Ballarat on Tuesday afternoon, to travel about 120km east to the Victorian capital city of Melbourne, then jumping into the overnight sleeper which departs just before 2000h and heads to Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales. It arrives around 0800h on Wednesday.

After a quick trip to a Sydney beach, where I'll see if I can dip my toes into the Pacific, I'll board the cross-continental Indian-Pacific train for a 1530h departure. Three days later, at mid-afternoon on Saturday, the train will arrive in Perth, Western Australia's capital.

I have a couple of days to find my way to an Indian Ocean beach to do my toe-dip there before flying to the Northern Territory capital city of Darwin on Monday morning in readiness for a departure on The Ghan mid-morning on Wednesday for the three-night trip south to Adelaide, South Australia's capital, arriving around mid-day on Saturday.

That day is election day for the national parliament, so my main task is to get to the polling place which accepts interstate voters such as me. I'm a keen follower of politics, so I'll be closely watching the returns that evening.

Sunday is a free day, and I suspect a joyful one for me given the likely election result, and I'll also be looking to catch the A-League Grand Final later that day in a game I'm hoping my team - Melbourne Victory - will be contesting.

The following day I complete my journey home, most of it on rails on a train departing Adelaide for Melbourne, but which I will disembark at its penultimate stop where I will be met by my non-travelling partner for the 90km drive home to Ballarat.

The Indian-Pacific and The Ghan are a bit more than LD trains: they are event trains - fully-catered cruises on steel wheels - and priced accordingly. Their clientele is not the ordinary traveller, but the event traveller, in the older demographic most of whom I suspect are retirees. Both trains run included off-train excursions.

The same company runs the Adelaide-Melbourne service as a day-time trip a couple of times a week each way. It is subsidised by the Victorian state government. It has a two-class all-seater system. Its service replaces government-run trains between these two state capitals and is more of an excursion train - there are cheaper and faster ways to travel between the two cities, and the drive is manageable on good highways easily under ten hours, eight if you avoid stopping and under usual driving conditions.

The Melbourne-Sydney overnighter is regular public transport, with a day-time and night-time service running each way, each day. It's a twelve hour journey with a sleeper carriage and a few seat carriages. I think it is a joint-venture between the NSW and Victorian state governments, but I suspect the service is supplied by NSW equipment. It competes with one of the most-flown routes on the planet or a ten- to twelve-hour road trip.

The Ballarat-Melbourne train is a regular inter-city service, run by the Victorian state government, operating at a rate of about one an hour, with greater frequency for the morning and evening commute.

So if you'd like to come along for the ride - almost 12,000kms of it, including about 9,300kms on steel wheels - I'd welcome your company!


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## mcropod (May 7, 2019)

First leg accomplished!

I caught the 1518h Ballarat to Melbourne service arriving on time at 1638h.

The train is a standard intra-State city sprinter service, single-class, toilet and water equipped, but nothing else. The seats are set out in two sets of pairs and fours separated by a central walkway, some pairs oriented forwards, the others backwards.

Although it's a smart-card ticketing system, the trains have an on-board conductor who checks tickets on a reader. Additionally, at Melbourne's terminal station officially known as Southern Cross, but locally known as Spencer Street, you can't escape the platforms except by going through gates which operate only with your ticket.

The train was a six-carriage Bombadier diesel, with the driver's position at either end. My train is was to be quickly heading back to Ballarat as part of the afternoon transport rush from the city.

I checked in at the overnight train service counter and passed over what I thought was my travel docket for the overnight service to Sydney only to see a puzzled look on the face of the CSO behind the counter. She told me I'd given her details of the flight from Perth to Darwin which she couldn't help me with, but we soon sorted out the right bit of paper and I was sorted.

I have a little bit of spare time, so I'll drop in to one of the many cafes in the vicinity and chill there until near boarding time for the 1950h departure.

Pics:

1 Ballarat Station

2 The train after arriving in Melbourne being cleaned before its return

3 Another service already at the platform to go after the Ballarat train, along the same line, but only to Bacchus Marsh

4 Spencer Street western platforms servicing Melbourne's suburban lines

5 Spencer Street eastern platforms servicing country and regional city lines

6 Spencer Street Departures board


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## caravanman (May 7, 2019)

Currently on a rail free cheapo two weeks in Turkey, I will be following your trip with interest, and also rooting for Labour in your elections. 
I had hopes of riding The Ghan from Alice Springs to Darwin some years ago, but it was sold out and I had to hire a car to drive up, instead  Probably better to plan ahead sometimes...

Ed.


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## mcropod (May 7, 2019)

It's now approaching mid-morning and I'm overlooking the Pacific Ocean at Bondi Beach in Sydney.

The train arrived about 40 minutes behind schedule, but when you are not in a hurry, you can never be late. Apparently there was signal problems around Albury just over the border into NSW from Victoria. I didn't sleep much, but I was happy to be still and in a dark cabin. It was obvious the train was progressing slowly at times.

As it approaches Sydney from the west, it gets tangled up with Sydney commuter trains in the morning peak, so it wasn't able to make up time on the run in.

But that's no problem. I ditched my bags at the Sydney Central station's left luggage, and found my way north about a kilometre to the closest bus stop for the #333 to Bondi and its famous beach.

I got there about 0845h and watched some surfers come in at the southern end of the beach.

Bondi Beach runs directly off the Pacific, so the next bit of land east is the top of the north island of New Zealand. A little farther up the coast from Sydney, if you look out east, the next bit of land you'd hit would be Chile. The southern hemisphere is mostly sea.

I was in a two-berth sleeper, the last carriage in the train, with only the rear locomotive behind. Ahead of me were two first-class seating carriages, one of which also had the buffet area, and two economy-class seating carriages. When it was motoring, the train hit about 130kph, but it was often less than tis - especially in Victoria - because of the condition of the track.

It looks as if the booking service assigns solo sleeper passengers to rooms by themselves, then doubles up as more bookings arrive. I discovered two passengers obviously travelling together were assigned one to my room, the other to the other of the rooms with which it shares a bathroom. One was an elderly man (in my room) the other a younger man. Both looked east Asian, and the elderly of the two had as much English as I had his language.

When it was obvious the other solo passenger in the other room was an old anglo-Aussie a bit like me, we got together and offered to swap rooms so the pair could travel together in the same room. Easily done, I swapped and took the upper bunk in a room occupied by Greg, a businessman returning to his western Sydney home from his Melbourne factory.

Greg told me he prefers taking the train to flying. His home is west of Sydney on the train line, and he can easily jump on that in the evening, have a sleep, and be in the heart of Melbourne's CBD, not far from his factory refreshed and ready to go. No need to take the long journey from home to Sydney airport, then the long journey into the city from Melbourne airport, and all the dead time involved in air-travel.

He de-trained about 90mins before Central, so I had the cabin solo for the last section as the train ran through the Sydney south-western suburbs.

The sleeper passengers are supplied with an amenities kit, a fresh towel, a train guide, an evening snack pack, and access to meals from the buffet. There is no diner, so meals are in-cabin.

The car-attendant takes breakfast orders of toasts and teas/coffees to be delivered to you room. A boxed breakfast of cornflakes, 200ml milk, and 200mls fruit juice is also supplied.

There is a bathroom with pull-down sink, and pull-down toilet which is between each mirror pair of cabins. With both the sink and the toilet in their closed positions, the room as also a shower. The bunks are located on the opposite, rather than adjoining, wall to the bathroom, and run across the rails, rather than along them as in an Amtrak roomette.

There are just nine rooms, so just 18 sleeper berths.

The rooms are a little larger than the roomettes on Amtrak and cabin-for-one on ViaRail, with a bit more storage space. The corridor is to one side of the train, rather than down the middle, as you'd expect because of the bed orientation.

Everything worked as it should, the staff were friendly and efficient, the station worked well, and it was good to have a leg-stretch and take in some sea-air.


Pics:

1 The Sydney train

2 The cabin in day-configuration

3 The amenities pack (not shown: the earplugs)

4 Bondi Beach on a weekday morning


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## mcropod (May 8, 2019)

Feet in Pacific Ocean


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## mcropod (May 8, 2019)

A place where people sing a bit


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## mcropod (May 8, 2019)

The most northerly of Sydney's CBD suburban rail circuit stations is at Circular Quay. All trains departing from that station go to Sydney Central station.

The CBD circuit is underground, but oddly enough, Circular Quay station is not. Neither is it at ground level.

It is one level up, and has a magnificent view of the adjacent ferry terminal and the coathanger.

This pic is from ground level showing one of the harbour ferries and the coathanger in the background.


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## mcropod (May 8, 2019)

Getting around Sydney by public transport, which comprises bus, train, and harbour ferry, is very inexpensive, but requires the passenger to have an Opal smartcard which is then loaded with money.

It's not difficult to get, but factor that in to your travel plans if you intend to have a squizz at Sydney.

The very best run to make if you are pressed for time only have half a day is to take the ferry from Circular Quay across the harbour to Manly. From the dock, it's a short walk through Manly's shopping area to Manly beach, also on the Pacific. That commuter ferry, running a regular passenger service, gives a spectacular view of Sydney, the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, various WWI fortifications in the harbour, as well as the waterside mansions of the well off.


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## mcropod (May 8, 2019)

caravanman said:


> Currently on a rail free cheapo two weeks in Turkey, I will be following your trip with interest, and also rooting for Labour in your elections.
> I had hopes of riding The Ghan from Alice Springs to Darwin some years ago, but it was sold out and I had to hire a car to drive up, instead  Probably better to plan ahead sometimes...
> 
> Ed.


I'm glad you'll be joining me for the trek caravanman!

I'd not lightly use the expression "root" or "rooting" around Aussies - it usually makes us laugh, because it has an entirely different meaning in the local argot. 

Turkey is a top place - I really enjoyed the friendly people, and the relaxed feeling I got all over the place, deep into the night included. I reckon it's partly because alcohol use is not widespread, even in the youth. I felt safer on the streets late at night in Istanbul than I do in the Melbourne CBD.


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## trainman74 (May 8, 2019)

I took the overnight train from Sydney to Melbourne in 2009. Sounds like not much has changed. (When I did it, it was winter, and there were few enough sleeper passengers that I got the room to myself.)


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## oregon pioneer (May 8, 2019)

I am along for the ride, as well, through your wonderful photos! 
Thanks so much for posting. I have a young(er) friend running as an independent in Warringah. I met her as a tyke, so following along on the election as well.


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## mcropod (May 8, 2019)

oregon pioneer said:


> I am along for the ride, as well, through your wonderful photos!
> Thanks so much for posting. I have a young(er) friend running as an independent in Warringah. I met her as a tyke, so following along on the election as well.



Getting into the Pacific was a toss-up between Bondi in the electorate of Wentworth, or Manly in the electorate of Warringah. Both will be interesting to watch on election night, for similar reasons.

I opted for Bondi because it was going to be easier to manage for time, but otherwise I'd have been in Warringah like a shot 

There's a major Independent in Warringah, Zali Steggall, as well as one other who has not had the same public profile as Steggall, Susan Moylan-Coombs. She is listed on the ballot-paper as Susan Moylan.

https://www.aec.gov.au/election/voting.htm#candidates

I reckon the two who'll be fighting it out at the end of the night will be Steggall against the incumbent and previously Liberal Party PM Tony Abbott. I knew Moylan-Coombs was an Indigenous woman who was the first to step up to challenge Abbott, but until checking her out again just a minute ago, I was unaware that her grandfather was "Nugget" Coombs, a key person in Australia's post-WWII economic reconstruction and who was still an intellectual force well into my time as a young adult. I was pleased to be able to meet him when he must have been well into his 70s, and he was still advocating for progressive causes.

Were I in that electorate, I think I'd vote her at #1, and Steggall at #2. I think those who vote for her will eventually end up electing Steggall.

How did you meet up with her (presuming you are referring to Moylan-Coombs rather than Steggall)? Unless you are referring to Steggall who has a major representative winter sports background.


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## mcropod (May 8, 2019)

It was a bumpy night last night on the rails - the section Sydney to Adelaide is said to be the roughest ride on the run.


But boarding was easy, and they'd split the train into two parts so's no-one had to schlep too far before finding their carriage. I was in carriage A, but that turned out to be a few carriages from the locos. There are two hooked up for this part, as there is a decent climb out of Sydney through the part of Australia's Great Dividing Range which runs down the nation's eastern coastline locally known as The Blue Mountains.


In the early days of European settlement, those mountains were seen as a significant barrier against access to the vast hinterland. Like millions of secondry students across the country, I learnt it was three explorers in the 1800s who finally found a route through. Of course, it likely never dawned on them to ask the Indigenous inhabitants, here for what's now thought to be 60,000 years beforehand, and who surely knew not one, but many ways through.


This was later to be a bit of a theme, as the next day, upon wakening early for a tour around the mining town of Broken Hill in far west NSW, the commentry from the bus driver when describing Broken Hill's history began " In 1873, two explorers......"


I thought we'd become a little more aware.


I subsequently asked one of the locals who was part of the Trades Hall welcoming party if he knew anything about the Indigenous peoples' explanations about the area. He said he wasn't exactly the full bottle, but he recalled being told that the Indigenous legend which explained the geography is because a large bird caused the topography though its droppings as it flew high overhead. There are fascinating explanations for all different parts of Australia deeply embedded in local history for thousands of years, and - subject to "secret business" - we should all know more.


Anyway, the train made its way through the central NSW cities of Parkes (site of the Australian connection to the 1969 moon landing), Bathurst, and Orange before I went horizontal. I'd earlier met up with three women travelling together, elderly mother, daughter a little younger than I, and and her English cousin. We had an interesting conversation about UK and Oz politics, and our respective migration histories which took us happily right through our three-course meal.


There was time to use the shower room - a little larger than its Amrak equivalent and better appointed - before putting an end to a very full Wednesday.


The following morning was a rise before sun-up for the tour of Broken Hill.


Although Broken Hill is in the state of NSW, it locally-observes South Australia time - a 30 minute later time-zone. Broken Hill looks to Adelaide rather than Sydney for access to capital city services because Adelaide is significantly closer and easier to get to. We were told that we'd be observing local time when there, and not to rely on what our various geographically-aligned devices told us was the time. It also meant that we had a further 30 minutes sleep before the early start.


Broken Hill is where the mining and energy behemoth BHP began, with the first two letters of the BHP acronym referring to Broken Hill. I took the option of learning a little more of its labour and union history with a visit to Trades Hall.


In an earlier period of my life I had been a union organiser and industrial officer, and through various trade union training courses had become aware of how the Broken Hill union movement had formed what they termed the Barrier Industrial Council to unite the various unions on matters which crossed trade lines, and to maximise industrial and political strength. Even today, four times a year, workers in Broken Hill have "badge day" - the day they show their union membership by wearing a Barrier Industrial Council badge, which shows their union and shift.


Next scheduled was a trip to the Miners' Memorial, high on the side of the mine edge, where all the workers who died are commemorated. But the gate was shut and locked - we were unable to enter, and the driver had no-one to contact.


I was sitting next to a Kiwi I'd met the previous evening and remarked how ironic it was that we were prevented from entering the site by a barrier.


We were back on the train for breakfast.


I was seated with a mother and daughter travelling together with the daughter's grandfather on his bucket-list trip. He was wheelchair-bound and scarcely left his room, but they were determined to ride The Indian-Pacific and The Ghan.


The family was from Mildura, in Victoria's far north-west. Mildura is an irrigation city on the Murray River, and grows oranges as well as other fruit including melons and grapes. The family was in the fruit-services industry.


The fourth member of the breakfast quartet was a soon-to-be-retired Sydney metropolitan train driver. She had been moved from conductor/guard to driver around the time of the Sydney Olympics but had decided it was now about time to call it a day. She was a little trepidacious about how she would occupy herself after the obligations of shift-work and weekend rosters, and when she asked me if I was retired - she suspected as much - she then asked how do I fill in my day.


I let her know she should not worry. There's a million ways to live an interesting and productive life beyond working for the man.


We were to arrive in Adelaide mid-afternoon for a series of visits which would keep us off-train until close to our 2100h departure west. An added issue for those in our carriage was that the carriage was going to be replaced in Adelaide for routine servicing, and we were asked to have our belongings packed to allow the crew to make the change and have us set up in our substitute upon our return.


We'll see how that goes next report.


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## Jean (May 9, 2019)

As I drove home yesterday afternoon I actually followed along in real life with your train as it travelled through Blaxland in the Blue Mountains. The train line and highway are in close proximity most of the way over the Mountains. So I look forward to following along online.


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## mcropod (May 9, 2019)

Jean said:


> As I drove home yesterday afternoon I actually followed along in real life with your train as it travelled through Blaxland in the Blue Mountains. The train line and highway are in close proximity most of the way over the Mountains. So I look forward to following along online.



How fab! We are a very long train, I suspect we are more than 20 carriages. I'd be glad of your virtual company for the trip.


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## oregon pioneer (May 9, 2019)

mcropod said:


> I reckon the two who'll be fighting it out at the end of the night will be Steggall against the incumbent and previously Liberal Party PM Tony Abbott. I knew Moylan-Coombs was an Indigenous woman who was the first to step up to challenge Abbott, but until checking her out again just a minute ago, I was unaware that her grandfather was "Nugget" Coombs, a key person in Australia's post-WWII economic reconstruction and who was still an intellectual force well into my time as a young adult. I was pleased to be able to meet him when he must have been well into his 70s, and he was still advocating for progressive causes.
> 
> Were I in that electorate, I think I'd vote her at #1, and Steggall at #2. I think those who vote for her will eventually end up electing Steggall.
> 
> How did you meet up with her (presuming you are referring to Moylan-Coombs rather than Steggall)? Unless you are referring to Steggall who has a major representative winter sports background.



It is Steggall I am rooting for. I met her entire family when I was skiing in the French Alps, late '70s, and visited with them again in summer several years later. I reconnected with her a few years back. I recently read an article about Australia's growing awareness of climate change in the New York Times, and there she was! I have checked out her positions, and followed her facebook page, and I like her combination of sensible fiscal policy and awareness of climate change. Glad to see the changing climate awareness in Australia, and I only wish it would happen faster here in the US. I live in a wildfire zone in eastern Oregon, and believe me, wildfire resilience and defensibility is one of our main concerns for our land.


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## mcropod (May 9, 2019)

oregon pioneer said:


> It is Steggall I am rooting for. I met her entire family when I was skiing in the French Alps, late '70s, and visited with them again in summer several years later. I reconnected with her a few years back. I recently read an article about Australia's growing awareness of climate change in the New York Times, and there she was! I have checked out her positions, and followed her facebook page, and I like her combination of sensible fiscal policy and awareness of climate change. Glad to see the changing climate awareness in Australia, and I only wish it would happen faster here in the US. I live in a wildfire zone in eastern Oregon, and believe me, wildfire resilience and defensibility is one of our main concerns for our land.



Hah! You underplayed her significance, so I presumed you were speaking of the other independent.

Vali Steggall is one of *the* major stories of this election, and an example as to why the climate-change obfuscators - prime amongst them ex-PM Tony Abbott - are being called out by an electorate which is so far ahead of them. Old tribal loyalties are being shattered as the community realises that they will never see effective action by electing the same troglodytes.

That seat was never going to elect a Labor or Greens candidate, but give them a credible socially-liberal fiscally-conservative candidate like Steggall, it is now up for grabs.

As an added incentive for the electorate, which voted something like 70% in favour of marriage equality, Abbott - who was totally opposed to the notion - left the chamber, rather than voted as his electorate wanted him to, when the vote was taken on the issue in the House of Representatives.

It is all pointing to an ignominious end to the political career of Abbott, who in addition to being the PM for a time within the last six years, has been a senior minister in a host of previous Liberal governments.

Say G'day to Vali from me please next time you have a chat and thank her for her good work, regardless of the outcome.


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## mcropod (May 9, 2019)

It's now early morning on Friday, the day we begin our Nullabor crossing from far west South Australia into the east of Western Australia. One of the features of the geography is that the railway surveyors did not need to create a curve or deviation in the track for more than 470kms (almost 300 miles), so they didn't bother.


We will enter that bit of track a bit later in the journey, but it is indicative of the breadth and topography of the Nullabor that the surveyors could draw a straight line on their maps for that 470
kms safe in the knowledge that they would encounter no topographic obstruction, no settlement, no other infrastructure, around which they would need to deviate.


At the moment the train is still in South Australia where we will be for some time yet. But the train is operating on WA time as far as the passengers are concerned - ninety minutes earlier than what our devices are telling us.


Hence, although I awoke at around 0700h on the train, it was still around 0530h for the helicopter pilot I saw rounding up livestock in the scrub to the north. There was plenty of time to get sorted before breakfast.


Which was also good because our meal in a German restaurant in the small town of Handorf in the Adelaide Hills the previous evening had been an ample one indeed. Hamdorf was settled by German immigrants in the late 1800s and has retained its identity since, with understandable short periods being more anodyne during the Great War and WWII.


It's about 35kms east of Adelaide, a distance sufficient to make it an entirely separate place from the SA capital back in the day, but it is pretty much part of greater Adelaide nowadays with commuter buses taking residents into their CBD jobs and schools.


But it trades off its German origins, as the restaurant, its cuisine, and the evening's entertainment illustrated. A Bavarian-themed quintet comprising two young women bell-ringers and dancers, one male accordian player, and two male thigh- and foot-slapping dancers put on a show for us as the strudel course appeared.


The train's passengers had dispersed into three separate excursion groups. One had left the train early to explore the great wineries of the Barossa Valley, another area which benefitted from its early German influences.


And another was to spend a number of hours touring the Art Gallery of SA.


I was in a group that further splintered. Both were to visit Handorf and the restaurant, but one group had gone cheese-tasting beforehand, the other chocolate-tasting.


Meal, bells, yodelling, and strudel over, we reboarded the buses for the half-hour return to the train ready for its 2100h departure.


True to promise, my two bags had been put back in my cabin after the carriage swap, and my carriage was now amongst the last in the train.


But I discovered my Circular Quay bought sun-hat was not with my bags. Mindful of the "missing" GPS incident leaving Chicago on the Empire Builder scarcely a year ago, I made an exhaustive search of every hidey-hole in the cabin I could identify in order to assure myself it was not there. Mindful that I eventually discovered my GPS on the Empire Builder under my hat which had been resting all along on the step to my roomette's upper-bunk, I thought to look under my GPS this time in case karma had placed it there.


It hadn't, so I went in search of a member of the train passenger-service crew to report my missing hat. As the on-train crew had been replaced at the train company's Adelaide hub, she could only take down some details and promised to get back to me.


Then it was shower and horizontal time, watch turned back by ninety minutes, and the end to Thursday.


I awoke around sunrise the next day to the flat South Australian plains, and the beginning of the red sand interior. The scrub comprised low bushy trees, gnarled despite their shortness, and with thin dry foliage. Some decent tain had recently fallen and small puddles glinted in the morning light.


Not long afterwards I spotted a helicopter low in the sky, and manoevering in the way that indicated it was part of a stock round-up. The scrub was too thick, and the distance too great to see if that were the case, and if so, whether it was cattle or sheep, but if the flight-pattern was not about livestock wrangling, the pilot was in a badly performing aircraft and should land it as quickly as possible.



On the previous day's run from Broken Hill, I had seen some sheep on a property who would have been doing it hard because of how inhospitable their grazing was in the drought currently affecting large parts of Australia. I suspect the area I was now in was cattle, rather than sheep country. Even these larger beasts would be difficult to round up on bikes or horseback in the scrub, and so are best seen from the air.


Within a short distance yesterday I also managed to bag a Coat of Arms - first a few emus, then not long afterwards a kangaroo or two.


It'll be interesting to do wildlife spotting across the Nullabor, other than birds. A pair of cockatoos were in a nearby tree, one upside down, as I wrote this, their white feathers very bright in the morning sun.


The train was keeping an average speed in the 90-100kph range for much of the distance today, but has now slowed to a more sedate 70. There's evidence out my window (I am on the north side of the train) of substantial trackwork either being done or about to be. Large stacks of concrete sleepers and piles of discarded wooden ones can be seen, as can ribbons of racked rail.


Working outside doing physical labour here would not be much fun.


My watch says it's 0730h, but it's 0900h for the fettlers. It's time to emerge from my cabin and start my Friday.


Will my hat be relocated? When will on-train and off-train time align again? Will I be able to complete important banking business currently being prevented because it seems the bank portal is wary of giving me access from my roaming profile?


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## mcropod (May 9, 2019)

I managed to insert the chopper-in-the-sky pic much earlier in the story than is sensible, so my apologies about that.

I'll get the hang of this eventually


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## chakk (May 9, 2019)

On one of my several foreign trips from California to Sydney while employed in California about 30 years ago, I took the train overnight to Melbourne and worked in my employer's Australian office there (with good internet access) instead of marking time in a Sydney library. The roundtrip train fare was substantially less than two nights lodging in my probable Sydney hotel.


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## mcropod (May 10, 2019)

We've just had a stop at Cook, the thriving hub of the railway in distant decades, but now a mostly deserted place. There are still a few staff present as it's a refuelling stop, but nowhere near the numbers of years past.

Anyway, it gave me the opportunity to check out what comprises our train. There are 23 in the consist which now has a single loco #N86 in the lead, and a car-carrier at the rear.

We added the car-carrier in Adelaide and dropped loco #N99.

The loco numbers were easy to remember for an old "Get Smart" fan like me.

The train is 545m long, according to the train manager, and the time we spent off-train at Cook was plenty enough to do a full train-walk and back, as well as time to take some pics.


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## mcropod (May 10, 2019)

My hat turned up in time for me to take my walk in the fresh air at Cook. I forgot to mention that in my previous missive. It was delivered by one of the train staff after they put together the puzzle of a hat without an owner, and an owner without a hat. Apparently, it had been mis-allocated to another cabin, probably didn't fit that cabin's occupant, and so was reported as not belonging there.


After our Cook leg-stretch it was time for our mid-day meal. The early advice circulating amongst the awaiting diners was that the camel curry on the menu was the go-to item.


And so it proved.


I was seated with pineapple-farming couple Christine and Gordon from the Sunshine Coast hinterland in Queensland, not far from where one of my sisters lives, and who I visited relatively recently. I happily learnt about pineapple varieties and that it's best to go for the top-lopped variety rather than the top-remaining variety in the shops. By pineapple-grower convention, the lopped-top variety is the sweeter one.


To obtain some more detailed specialist advice, I opted for the fruit platter at meal's end as it had pineapple as a constituent along with blueberries and pear. Gordon identified the size and variety of the pinapple from how it looked on the plate, and forecast it was a young example of the variety grown mainly for canning, with a lower sugar content. When I taste a really sweet pineapple it is remarkably different from the more common variety I encounter in fruit platters such as the example served.


Gordon explained that was because the variety we get in the south of the country is picked earlier to factor in a week's additional handling from farm to table, as well as it likely being the less-epxensive canning variety anyway.


Now more educated in the pineapple-selection business, I will see if I can make better choices in future.


Gordon was a beer-drinker, and our waitress, Vanessah, returned with another stubbie after Gordon had requested a re-fill. When Vanessa reached the table and was about to deliver the bottle, we all realised it was only about two-thirds full - clearly there had been a leakage in the bottling plant or in delivery. We all razzed Vanessah in the gentle and friendly way that's common between Aussies, and told her she could have her next swig more overtly, and that there was no need to do it on the sly on the way to the table.


Vanessa was of SE Asian background, and her accent indicated she was a relatively recent arrival, but she was sufficiently acclimatised to understand we were having a lend of her and so played along. That is an aspect of Australian-ness I really enjoy. There's a different dynamic here between customer and wait-staff which is more equal and egalitarian than I sometimes see in other countries.


Long may it remain that way.


Upon exiting the diner I saw Glinda, an Oz-resident of South African origin I had previously met. She was sitting by herself in the lounge. We, together with Glinda's friend and travelling companion Penny, had been an accidental dining trio a day earlier. Glinda and I had a spirited conversation then, but were both unsuccessful at having an engagement with Penny, who then left the table before we'd finished our meal.


Glinda was upset by this as she thought it rude, but wanted to preserve the relationship she had with Penny which had been in existence for many years. I let her know I was not upset or offended by this and we continued our conversation for quite a time.


In Cook, I had seen Glinda by herself and asked if things had settled as I didn't want to put her in a difficult position for the remainder of the trip, and she said that I should not make their double a triple, despite how much she would like our conversations to continue.


As it was clear Glinda was by herself in the lounge, I asked if it was OK to have a chat. She happily agreed, and we had a good discussion about our respective backgrounds for a solid half-hour. We are clearly and openly on different parts of the Oz political spectrum, but share many values. She was excellent company, and if opportunity presents itself again later on the trip, I'm sure we'll have another chinwag.


We entered WA, and the time was now the same on both sides of the window.


For the previous eight or so hours, the Nullabor landscape has barely altered. The horizons are flat in all directions, the vegetation is predominantly knee-high bushy scrub. The soil is red and sandy and dotted wth large grey rocks.

It's a vast space. We are insigificant within it.


Later this evening, there is a campfire sit-down schedule in the desert at Rawlinna. It's a cloudy sky, so the magnificence of a desert super-starry sky unfortunatelty may not be on view, but the desert stillness and quiet should still be there.


Tonight's evening meal will be served aboard, and I'm on the 2030h late shift, a good thing given the camel curry which was as tasty as it was sizeable.


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## mcropod (May 10, 2019)

This morning, upon awakening, I saw for the first time a species of eucalypt I had not previously known of.

It was a glorious thing, seeing it shortly after sunrise as we crossed into the start of the wheat country west of the gold-mining city of Kalgoorlie. I thought initially it was a trick of the light which gave the tree its sparkling copper coloured trunk and branches, shiny and smooth in the day's early rays. But it truly was a tree with a copper-coloured bark, clearly a eucalypt, but entirely new to me.

I checked it out once I had connectivity to discover there are two species with copper or salmon pink bark. One is commonly known as the Salmon Gum, the other as the Gimlet, but with a more suitable official name of Eucalyptus Salubris.

The Salmon Gum (E Salmonophloia) was likely the species I spotted, and is widespread in this part of WA. It is a spectacular tree.


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## mcropod (May 10, 2019)

This is my final day on the Indian-Pacific. It arrives in Perth in about four hours or so.

Last night's meal was with Gordon and Christine again and we continued our discussion about the pressures of farming. They have begun to travel, initially in Australia, as their children have now all moved into adulthood. Their youngest, a daughter, had just turned 19 and was working in hospitality, a public-contact job Christine said she was perfectly-suited to given her personality.

But running a farm is a seven-day-a-week obligation, so their ability to get away is limited to relatively short periods, and at quiet times of the production season.

Jesse, one of the dining-car's wait staff, suggested I add lime juice to my requested post-meal Frangelico. I took up his recommendation and discovered it took the drink into the Grand Marnier place in the flavour spectrum.

After retiring for the night, I awoke around 0300h to discover the train was stationary at Koolgardie, a town famous for its gold mining and situated at the western end of the Nullabor, and 600kms to the east of Perth.

A little later I awoke again, just before sunrise, with the train at a standstill. The passage of a goods train shortly afterwards was the explanation for that halt.

We moved into grain country, then salt-flats, and past shallow lakes. The ground was beginning to loose its flatness, but could scarcely be called anything other than gently undulating. The horizons were still distant.

The tree-size increased as did the density of the forests. The sand had lightened from red to light brown and paler yet. Small settlements began to appear, as did a very large grain-handling facility at Merredin where we briefly stopped again.

I'd breakfasted with Simon and Robyn, a couple from Sydney. Simon worked as a train planner, particularly catering for Sydney special events. Robyn was a nurse and records officer at the same Sydney hospital she herself had been born in.

I was able to let her know my only claim to fame regarding birth hospital is that I arrived in the same Scottish maternity hospital as did AC/DC's Bon Scott. I couldn't tell if that impressed them.

Simon was born in Leeds in England, migrating with his family just after he'd finished High School. He was disappointed at Leeds football team's late-season stutter which took them out of the automatic promotion spots into the EPL, and into the cut-throat play-offs currently underway. He'd not checked their progress whilst on the train, but I felt he was pessimistic about Leeds' chances.

I remembered seeing an old British documentary about train movement planning, and saw the way in which it was done by effectively drawing a graph with a pencil and ruler. Stations or junctions were displayed on the vertical axis, and time on the horizontal. Train movements were therefore drawn with diagonal lines, going horizontal when the train was stopped at a location. The faster the train, the steeper the diagonal, and the more frequently stopped showed a stepped diagonal as opposed to an express which would have an unbroken diagonal.

I immediately saw how descriptive that was, and how simple it was to illustrate. Simon said that, of course, planning is now computer-based, but the old graph system gave a much more inclusive and instant representation of the wider traffic-movement picture. It was often referred to by the older crew who wanted to see a more holistic picture.

As we were now in a more settled part of the country again, telecommunications improved, allowing me to catch up on what was going on in the world outside the train.

Apparently, there had been quite a bit.


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## mcropod (May 10, 2019)

The wobbly central corridor in the single cabin carriages.


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## mcropod (May 10, 2019)

The wobbly corridor from the end of the carriage.


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## mcropod (May 11, 2019)

A large grain-handling facility at Merredin with what looks like a few small white-barked Ghost Gums in the foreground.


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## mcropod (May 11, 2019)

The single cabin carriage has two shower and toilet bathrooms at one end, and two toilets at the other. This is one of the shower rooms.


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## mcropod (May 11, 2019)

The Indian-Pacific loco pulls us around a right-hand bend near Northam.


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## mcropod (May 11, 2019)

Train-spotters watching us, and then a grain train approaches from the west.


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## mcropod (May 11, 2019)




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## mcropod (May 11, 2019)

We wait at a siding to allow an intercity two-car train to overtake us - note how the two other tracks are dual-gauge (as is the one we are on).


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## mcropod (May 11, 2019)

Perth suburbs, fifteen minutes from arrival time.


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## mcropod (May 11, 2019)

We arrived on schedule and disembarked the train at its East Perth terminal station.

The crew heads back to Adelaide the next day, so their work-week is a solid one. They were mostly very young, and from a wide variety of backgrounds.

At Cook, I was ushered back on to the train by a bloke who worked our carriages who told me he was from Nepal, arriving here only a couple of years ago. I joked that there'd be no chance they could build a railway in Nepal which had a 500km straight section, and he agreed with me. But he did say that the railway was coming to Nepal.

I asked him if it was coming from the Chinese side or the Indian, and he told me it was coming in from both directions. Imagine taking a run on that line from India into China through Nepal!

He was just one of several crew-members with an obvious Asian background, and all seemingly first-gen, but all with sufficient exposure to Australian mores to be open to the quirks and character of the train's passenger demographic, hailing as it did from those born in the 1950s and even earlier.

The end of the ride and the dispersal of the passengers was a bit of a muddle, though, it seemed to me.

There was little advice provided on the train as it drew near the terminal as to how the dispersal procedures would operate. There were passengers looking for their next rides milling all over the place. Instead of train crew knowing much or assisting, the harried and disparate staff of the multitude of bus transfer companies attempted to provide guidance.

I sought advice about from where my transfer would be located from a number of train staff to be pointed in different directions, and on each occasion when dealing with the poor passenger-wrangler from that bus, pointed elsewhere by that official.

Signage would improve things, as would a centrally-located passenger information desk.

I was unable to locate my transfer and so took a taxi for the ride into my Perth CBD hotel. The ride wasn't expensive, and the streets were surprisingly deserted for an Oz capital city at 1530h on a Saturday, so I was quickly in to the hotel's reception. As my taxi pulled up, I saw another maxi-taxi vehicle disgorging several passengers I recognised were my recent fellow-riders, so maybe they hit the same obstacles as me, or maybe that was also to have been my transfer vehicle.

I met up with family that Saturday evening - two of my sister's daughters and their families live in Perth.

Now it is Sunday morning, and I'll catch up with some political analysis on "Insiders", thankfully broadcast live in WA at 0700h as it's a 0900h program at home in the east, so saving me two hours.

And then it'll be time to research how to get to Cottesloe Beach for a toe-dip in the Indian Ocean!


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## mcropod (May 12, 2019)

Feet in Indian Ocean


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## mcropod (May 12, 2019)

Today was a day on the rails, including a trip to Freemantle (Freo in Oz) with a stop along the way to put my feet in the Indian Ocean.

I'd recommend a trip to Freo if you had a day in Perth. It's a half-hour train ride away from the main Perth station. Even today, operating a Sunday/Public Holiday timetable, there were trains throughout the day at 15minute intervals. That seemed to be the case on each of the five main lines in the Perth suburban network.

I had a valid old-man's card issued by my home State, and this qualified me for the concession rate on fares. A full-day, all-modes ticket cost me just $5.40. My WA equivalent would pay nix for weekend travel, as do I in Melbourne.

So wet-feet accomplished, I continued my journey to Freo and had a bit of an amble about.

Freo is Perth's port city. It was also the major arrival point for the vast bulk of immigrant ships from settlement to the advent of mass plane travel in the 1960s. Many immigrants decided to depart their ships here after having already been weeks at sea (months in the days of sail).

I always felt dudded by our migration because we were amongst the first to be sent by plane (a Boeing 707) in a westerly direction over the USA and the Pacific, rather than by sea south and east via Africa and the Southern Ocean. My school-friends who were also migrants from the UK had stories to tell about being on board a ship for six weeks, and having seen lots of the world.

I had a story of the 707 stopping for about 45 minutes at a time in New York, San Fransisco, Hawaii, and Fiji, before it disgorged us in Sydney for another flight to Melbourne. It was a poor one by comparison.

I will get over my disappointment soon, I hope.

The line to Perth skirts two sides of the Freo docks and provides a wonderful view of harbour activities.

The opening photo is of a motor-boat heading up the Swan River towards Perth through the docks.


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## mcropod (May 12, 2019)

Freo Station with the return train to Perth waiting at Platform 1


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## mcropod (May 12, 2019)

Freo street-scenes


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## mcropod (May 12, 2019)

On my return to Perth, I decided to run the length of the Mandurah line, about 70kms to the south.

I'd also recommend taking that line, at least for the first few stations to Bull Creek. That section hugs the Swan River as the line runs up the central reservation of one of Perth's major freeways. It is picturesque because of the views over the river, but also for the large and expensive houses on view through the windows on the opposite side.

It's a little rocket, the Mandurah train, easily exceeding 110kph as it overtook the traffic on the freeway which was restricted to 100kph in the faster sections.

The line goes past one of Perth's universities, as well as a major oil-handling facility at Kwinana. It terminates after its route takes us through large tracts of coastal vegetation as well as one section well-populated with grass-trees, once commonly known as Black Boys.

I sought to camera-capture some, but was unsuccessful given the speed we were travelling at. I'll see if I can find an image from elsewhere.

There is little to recommend the Mandurah terminal station. It didn't look like shops and services were nearby. But it was obviously a transport hub with buses and car-parking galore. But that didn't matter, as the train was off again on the return journey within about ten minutes.


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## mcropod (May 12, 2019)

Mandurah station


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## mcropod (May 12, 2019)

Grass Tree

https://www.google.com.au/imgres?im...4M:&vet=1&w=419&h=640&hl=en-au&source=sh/x/im


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## mcropod (May 12, 2019)

I made sure I was back in my hotel so I could see my football team, Melbourne Victory, play its Finals game live from Sydney.

There's now only 15 minutes to go and I figure we won't win.

Victory is 5 - 0 down.

Tomorrow, earlyish, I'll be departing for Perth airport for the flight to Darwin. It'll take around four hours to travel the more than 2,600kms. There's a time-change involved as Darwin shares its time-zone with Adelaide, 90 minutes ahead of Perth.

I should be in my new hotel by mid-afternoon, and ready to explore the tropical north. There are no suburban rail services, not even light-rail, in Darwin, but there are plenty of bus-routes.


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## Asher (May 12, 2019)

Followed your trip with much interest. Enjoyed all your photos, and side notes of conversations with fellow passengers, was even able to keep up with the verbiage. A lot of Australia reminds me of California, especially Nortnam and our foothills. Thanks for letting us enjoy your vacation.


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## Asher (May 12, 2019)

mcropod said:


> I made sure I was back in my hotel so I could see my football team, Melbourne Victory, play its Finals game live from Sydney.
> 
> There's now only 15 minutes to go and I figure we won't win.
> 
> ...



I thought there was a rail line going South to Katherine.


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## mcropod (May 12, 2019)

anumberone said:


> I thought there was a rail line going South to Katherine.



There was a line which went south of Darwin to a little south of Katherine and terminated there.

In the 1960s and 1970s at least, it was mostly used for the iron ore mined in the vicinity to be taken to Darwin wharf and loaded onto ships for export.

The line was subsequently made standard-gauge, had its route changed to go much more westerly, and extended (I think in the 1980s) and now runs that way from Darwin to Adelaide - the line I'll be on for The Ghan. In its previous guise, the old Ghan ran on narrow-gauge tracks between Port Augusta and Alice Springs in Australia's red heart. It was run by Commonwealth Railways, a publicly-owned and operated business.

There was never previously a line north of Alice to connect to Darwin until recently. The passenger and goods trains which run the line are not in public ownership.

There is no direct link between Perth and Darwin, although I will cross an area in which there are several privately-owned mining lines (some involving great distances) taking minerals from their inland mines to ports on the WA coast. None are linked into any statewide network.


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## Asher (May 13, 2019)

That clears that up, Thanks.


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## mcropod (May 13, 2019)

I loved this full-page ad in today's West Australian newspaper in which a commercial TV station's current affairs show proposes to ask the state Transport Minister how best to resolve freeway overcrowding in Perth.

And showing the answer in the photograph they use to illustrate the problem!

Do you reckon some people are just too silly to be credible?

I mentioned it's a 15 minute service on Sundays and Public Holidays.

It's a three-minute service on weekdays. With that sort of timetable, you don't need a timetable!


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## oregon pioneer (May 13, 2019)

mcropod said:


> I loved this full-page ad in today's West Australian newspaper in which a commercial TV station's current affairs show proposes to ask the state Transport Minister how best to resolve freeway overcrowding in Perth.
> 
> And showing the answer in the photograph they use to illustrate the problem!
> 
> ...



With service like that, I'd only drive if I had a compelling need to have my vehicle downtown with me. I lived in Seattle for years. I bicycled or took the bus to work and grocery store, and mainly used my vehicle to get out of town on weekends.


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## mcropod (May 13, 2019)

Toes in Timor Sea

As I was taking this shot, a small ray, with what I reckon was about a 50cm wingspan, darted by me to my left. It initially gave me a bit of a start, but the water was so clear I quickly identified it as a non-worrisome member of Australia's aquatic life, and then watched as it sped away.

Beautiful!


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## mcropod (May 14, 2019)

I left you in Perth in the west, but now I am in Darwin in the north.


Virgin domestic took me there in a flight lasting around three-and-a-half hours, most of it across the WA desert. I had booked early enough to select a window seat in what proved to be a chokka plane, and I was looking forward to enjoying a real-life geography lesson. The forecast was for clear skies the full distance, and so it proved.


The first half-hour after leaving the Perth conurbation was through grain country. The paddocks were relatively small by current day standards, likely pegged out in the 1920s or later when mechanisation was considerably less developed, and so keeping field sizes manageable was the driving force.


(I checked the flight-path later and saw that we overflew Northam, through which the train had rolled only a couple of days later, pretty much in a straight line to just west of Wyndham on the mightly Ord River and the coast, before a last leg across the Bonaparte Gulf, a half-right, then into Darwin from the north-west.)


But soon, and abruptly, the grain-country became wild country - untouched by road or paddock, just sparse forest with dried creek-beds, red soil, and white salt-pans.


I got into conversation with the passenger to my left. He introduced himself as Terry. He told me he was on his way to Darwin as part of a journey he regularly took from his home in Bunbury, south of Perth by two hours, to Melville Island, off the coast of Darwin for his job in forestry. He'd be there for a fortnight, working 12-hour night-shifts, before he'd make the return journey home for seven days off.


That working pattern affects a number of primary industries operating in remote parts of the country. The workforce is known as "Fly In, Fly Out" or FIFO for short. It predominantly is in the extraction industries of WA and Queensland, mining and oil, and seems to work for many people. It means only basic housing and catering need be established for the remote workforce rather than something more permanent and family-friendly.


Bunbury, you'll recall, was the destination of the first inter-city train I'd photographed at Perth station. Terry said his wife drove him the two hours to Perth, Virgin would take him to Darwin, and then a charter would fly him to Melville Island. His first shift was later that same evening.


Terry operated a piece of falling equipment which grasped the tree-trunk, sawed it close to the ground, then rotated the tree ninety-degrees to the ground. He said he was harvesting a pine species, planted there about 40 years ago, and also drops an acacia species.


I think he was glad to discover I had a bit of a knowledge and understanding of forestry which I explained I'd got because of my previous work for a state government agency which looked after issues affecting public land, including forestry. Our department managed hardwood native forest (various eucalypt species), as well as softwood plantation forest (pinus radiata mainly).


Terry had a spell working in the south-west of Victoria, an area of softwood plantation forestry I knew well.


And it turned out we had more in common still. Terry was born in Burnie, on Tasmania's north-west coast and started his forestry career there. I had worked for a year in Tasmania's south-west helping build a dam for the state's Hydro-Electricity Commission. I was aware of the great amount of planning which had gone in to allowing the harvesting of a high-value timber called Huon Pine, a prized old-growth species which produces a very fine-grain timber. I had been in the area where this was happening. The country from which this timber was being extracted would soon be flooded as a consequence of the dam I was working on. I was but a lowly carpenter's labourer.


Remarkable as Terry's story was about travelling about 3,000kms for his commute, it was the fact that there was a forestry industry on Melville Island which surprised me. That it could support a FIFO workforce, and a 24-hour operation, floored me.


I like learning new things.


Melville Island is one of a pair - the other is called Bathurst Island - which, together with some smaller ones, forms what are known as the Tiwi Islands. The local Indigenous people are the Tiwi, quite culturally different from their mainland and more southerly cousins.


I reckon most of us here in Oz couldn't point to Melville Island, even if they knew it existed. But Melville is the second largest of the Australian islands after Tasmania, but a tenth the size of the Apple State.


Leave Tasmania off the map of Australia and you are likely in big trouble. But Melville and Bathurst Islands' absence escapes comment. 


Terry's working year however is seasonal. As Dawin is so far north, just 12 degrees off the equator, it has a tropical weather pattern of a monsoon season (the Wet) and a dry one. We're in the Dry at the moment. You can guarantee it won't rain for a few months, and that each day will be sunny and around 35C, with nights in the low 20s and high teens.


The Wet is another story indeed. The temperatures stay high, but the rain is heavy and incessant and the nights are hot and humid.


Darwin isn't much fun in the Wet, and most outdoor activities in construction and off-road have to come to a halt. Terry's job does not exist in the Wet.


(The Indigenous people identified six seasons, a fact now becoming a little more understood and appreciated, compared to the binary system the incoming settlers hit on.)


My conversation with Terry meant that the flight was over quickly, and I disembarked, found a way to my lodgings, and spent an evening with some family-members still living in Darwin.


The following day I had an amble around Darwin before it got too hot, and called in at the NT Parliament which was in session. They were debating a Bill relating to fracking. Whe I arrived, I spotted the member making his speech was the long-term Independent Gerry Wood who I'd met on a previous visit to Darwin to referee the football at the Arafura Games, as he was then still also an active referee (as well as being an MP).


Then I used my Victorian old-man's card to obtain fare-free travel on the Darwin bus system by which means I found the beach at Fannie Bay in which I did my Timor Tea toe-dip.


It was time to get things organised for the next day's early morning departure to the Darwin terminus of The Ghan, a bit out of town, and requiring some logistical management by the train's operators.


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## mcropod (May 14, 2019)

Darwin early morning


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## mcropod (May 14, 2019)

Mangroves at Doctor's Gully, north Darwin CBD.


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## mcropod (May 14, 2019)

Darwin has come through two disasters which have flattened it. The first was in February 1942 when the Japanese air force bombed Darwin as part of its expansion across Asia in WWII. The second was at Christmas in 1974 when cyclone Tracy laid waste to the city. As a result, there are only a few old buildings about.


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## mcropod (May 14, 2019)

My flightpath, Perth to Darwin (access to this archive may disappear in a short while).

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/va1433#207d8904


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## mcropod (May 14, 2019)

Rock-fishing in the Darwin beach-side suburb of Fannie Bay where my mother spent about half of her life (and for you north Americans, who have a little giggle when someone says "Fannie", should know that in UK and Oz English, fannie is an even more risqué reference)


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## mcropod (May 14, 2019)

The beautiful multi-coloured local sandstone beach rock


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## trainman74 (May 14, 2019)

mcropod said:


> I loved this full-page ad in today's West Australian newspaper in which a commercial TV station's current affairs show proposes to ask the state Transport Minister how best to resolve freeway overcrowding in Perth.



Aside from the cars being on the wrong side of the roadway (and the phrasing "only in 7 News" instead of "only on 7 News"), this might as well be Los Angeles.


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## mcropod (May 14, 2019)

The lead loco on The Ghan at Darwin station


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## mcropod (May 14, 2019)

The second loco


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## mcropod (May 14, 2019)

Boarding at the unprepossessing Darwin terminal of The Ghan, several kilometres south of the city, and requiring bus transport from CBD hotels (included in the fare)


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## mcropod (May 14, 2019)




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## mcropod (May 14, 2019)

We are 830m long, comprise more than 33 carriages led by two locos, and have about 200 pax aboard.

I am four carriages from the front in car A cabin 9 - exactly the same as for the Indian-Pacific. Between me and the locos are two baggage cars, and a staff car.


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## mcropod (May 15, 2019)

It is 0224h and we are right in the middle of the desert at Tennant Creek, where there'll be a driver change, and some train provisioning for a little while.

I awoke on my own accord and saw the unmistakeable road junction on my sat-nav which told me where I was. I turned down the screen's light intensity and looked out the window for a bit.

I knew there was a three-quarter moon - I had seen it late in the afternoon as we explored the Nitmiluk Gorge at Katherine - and so there would be sufficient illumination to see a bit of detail. And so it proved - with the moon in the NW sky and us headed in a generally southern direction, it was bright enough to cause a moon-shadow of the carriage on the desert floor.

So a little bit brighter than most scenes of this series of Game of Thrones.

I could see the glow of the Tennant Creek lights in the distance, and then the blinking red light of the airport arose over the horizon and could be seen through the sparse tree-cover.

It's also one of the few places on the route where there is connectivity, and I needed to see if I could get a post from home letting me know about the fate of an aged quadriped member of our household who was last reported in a grave state.

The post gave me good news - he's recovering.

So now I am awake and have connectivity, I'll post some material which takes you up to last night.


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## mcropod (May 15, 2019)

I awoke early on Ghan boarding day, and had a last walk along Darwin's Esplanade in the cool of the morning, overlooking the Timor Sea from the elevated vantage-point offered at the cenotaph.


Darwin had been bombed in February 1942 with much loss of life in the city, and also at the wharf where a large number of military ships from the Australian and US navy had been berthed. Air-watchers at Bathurst and Melville Islands had sought to give a few minutes warning, but it was to little avail.


Darwin was evacuated, with much of the civilian population moving south. Military bases were also established south of the city, including at some of the places on the train journey south through which we would shortly pass.


Adelaide River was one, and allied airforce personnel from Australia, the UK, and the USA had variously been stationed there. I remembered airstrips dotted the Stuart Highway south, including one opposite the Defence property I had lived on as a school-kid called Sattler Airstrip.


It was a fraught time in northern Australia for a few years until the tide of the war changed in the Allies' favour.


Anyway, it was soon time to muster in the hotel foyer for the bus pick-up, and then, once loaded, head off about ten kilometres south and east of the CBD to the Darwin terminal.


Once aboard, I discovered I was allocated the same carriage and the same room as for the Indian-Pacific. That would save confusion, I thought.


Handily, that carriage was near the head of the train, and directly opposite the small terminal building where we disembarked the bus and found our cabin luggage.


As the train was 33 carriages in length, and 830 metres, there were many passengers who had a more substantial hike than I.


I took some pix and then went aboard.


The train left on schedule at 1000h, slowly at first as it left the Darwin built-up area, then picking up speed as it got into the start of the nearly 3,000kms journey through the outback.


We passed through a low-intensity grass-burn, done at this time early in The Dry to burn-off the grass and help promote new growth. Kites circled overhead ready to dive onto any small animal fleeing the flames. The area burnt looked like it was using the rail corridor as its western edge and the flames came quite close. For a time, our speed was reduced to 50kph, likely due to the smoke reducing visibility, but after a time we were back up to cruising speed around 90kph and a bit more.


The smoke was to have ramifications for some of my fellow-passengers, as I discovered later that evening.


We dined a little after mid-day, where I met Tammy from SE Queensland. Tammy seemed a little older than I, but she had travelled extensively in recent years. She told me of her visits, mostly to European countries as is the way with many older Australians. I had buffalo curry as my main.


Shortly afterwards, we readied ourselves for our first off-train excursions. Most seemed to be going to Nitmiluk Gorge (previously known as Katherine Gorge before it reverted to its Indigenous name).


There are several connected gorges at Nitmilik, joined up in one moving torrent in The Wet, but separating into several as the flow is reduced in The Dry. Our trip was up the first two of the series, cruising in small barges operated by the Jaywon people whose land we were on.


In The Wet, salt-water crocodiles can make their way along the water-course from Kakadu, upstream. Salties are the killers. You'd not want to be in the water with a saltie nearby.


There are freshwater crocs as well, and we saw two of them basking in the sun as we passed by. The freshies are smaller, and less dangerous to humans. The larger of the two we saw was probably a bit more than two metres in length.


Nitmiluk is very photogenic. I'm glad I now run a digital camera rather than a 36-shot film one.


After about three hours, we were back aboard, and amongst the first of the returnees. I met a pair in the lounge who had elected to take a 90-minute flight option over and along the grge and into Kakadu and Arnhem Land. I spotted that option on the list and considered it, despite its $400 per pax cost. There was also a helicopter 20-minute flight option for $200, overflying a few of the gorges.


I took neither, but the couple who'd taken the fixed-wing were told as they took off that the smoke from the fires meant they couldn't fly into Kakadu, and their flight was just over non-desccript bush country instead. They were a bit miffed as I would be in their circumstances.


I don't think there's any point in taking scenic flights in the Top End during the May-June burning season. The smoke-haze is considerable. Visibility will be poor over a vast distance.


Anyway, a Cointreau on ice was soon mine, followed by a shower, then a change for the evening meal and the chance to bump into new dining companions for my 2030h sitting.


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## mcropod (May 15, 2019)

A grass fire is alongside the tracks, with kites circling above


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## mcropod (May 15, 2019)

Nitmiluk Gorge cruise


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## mcropod (May 15, 2019)

Some warnings were in evidence about freshwater croc breeding areas


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## mcropod (May 15, 2019)

And a couple of freshwater crocs were also enjoying the sun. These were both around two to three metres long. I did not check.


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## mcropod (May 15, 2019)

I dined alone in splendid isolation last night in the late sitting. I am not fazed by that, by nature I am a solitary person, and enjoy private cogitation time.


Most tables were well into the menu by the time I arrived, likely all ravenous after their earlier exertions, and perhaps also naturally, 1930h diners by choice.


I went the full native: a crocodile entree, a barramundi main, and a macadamia and ginger dessert. They were all delicious and I felt both proud and patriotic.


Writing about the names of the courses brings to mind one puzzling aspect of one language: two people, which I encountered when dining in the USA. I feel now is the right time to get it off my chest.


In the USA, "entree" seems to refer to a main course - the main meal of a multi-course dining experience. I had never before and nowhere else seen "entree" used that way. You just need to look at the word to see its meaning, as defined by our French friends.


An entree in Oz dining experience is the smaller starter dish, usually to give the diner a taste of something, rather than a meal of it. It's the way you might "enter" the meal.


The main course is called - uh - the main course.


I provide this advice to our North American cousins as a public-service announcement so when they visit here, they don't go off at the front-of-house staff when they order an entree and become offended by its diminutive portion-size.


Anyway, please excuse the digression.


By way of a general train announcement, I found out The Ghan would be making a servicing and driver-change stop at Tennant Creek overnight.


Tennant Creek is a small mining town just south of the crossroads of the Stuart Highway - the main route north-south; and the Barkly Highway - the main route east to Queensland. There's nothing much to be seen there, but it would be a shame not to stop were you travelling by road, during daylight. Indeed, it's a handy overnighting town as it is a one-day drive north from Alice Springs on the way to Darwin or Queensland, and usually the second stop for lodgings when going south.


It also happens to be where my grandmother is buried.


It has a completely complicated back-story, but this English-born woman - the mother of my English-born, Scottish-raised mother - is buried in a marked grave in the middle of the Australian desert.


I knew there would be no ability to get near the graveyard, but I did want to know what time we were likely to be in Tennant Creek in case I was awake and could pay my respects from slightly closer than the usual 2,500kms away. I was told it was to be around 0100h to 0300h.


We'll see.

BTW, in a typical Oz place, flora, and fauna naming convention, where there is no need to go above and beyond (or even above *or* beyond), the small settlement north of Tennant Creek which has that three-way road junction, is called "Three Ways".


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## mcropod (May 15, 2019)

Reboarding at Katherine Station and the journey's next stop Alice Springs


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## Maglev (May 15, 2019)

Thanks for the detailed trip report and Photos! I'm really enjoying following along.

Could you please take some pictures inside the train of cabins and common areas?


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## mcropod (May 15, 2019)

Maglev said:


> Thanks for the detailed trip report and Photos! I'm really enjoying following along.
> 
> Could you please take some pictures inside the train of cabins and common areas?




Roger wilco. I'm happy to oblige.

The Ghan's layout is identical to the Indian-Pacific's, so you've not missed out and I have time to do so.

I think the only bit of interiors I did to date was the wiggly single-cabin carriage corridor, and the shower room, so I'll get onto the others shortly.


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## oregon pioneer (May 15, 2019)

When I was about eight or nine years old, and first introduced to ordering for myself from a menu, I questioned why the main course was called the "entree." Even though I had not taken any French classes yet, I puzzled over the etymology of the word "entree" and decided its meaning was OBVIOUS and the standard American use of the word was WRONG (children are pretty sure of themselves). Eventually, I grew up and decided it was not my duty to reform my culture's improper usage of the word. I resigned myself to being a barbarian. I understand what is being referred to by the word "entree" whether I am in the USA or in Europe. Now I know that Australia is among the civilized countries that use the word properly.


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## mcropod (May 16, 2019)

Some on-board shots.....

Last night's dining menu - all meals are included in the fare.


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## mcropod (May 16, 2019)

View attachment 13631
The train's drinks menu (the bar tab is included in the fare, and the bar is open from about 1100h to 2200h or so).


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## mcropod (May 16, 2019)

The dining carriage at breakfast this morning


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## mcropod (May 16, 2019)

The lounge and bar carriage


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## mcropod (May 16, 2019)

Each carriage has a self-serve hot and cold drinks area, operating around the clock


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## mcropod (May 16, 2019)

Twin cabin, day configuration


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## mcropod (May 16, 2019)

Why does a 33-carriage train carrying about 200 passengers have such small lounge and dining carriages?

That's a fair question, until you realise that there are really two separate trains running here, joined together at the halfway point by a power-generating carriage, through which no passenger can transit.

And in each of those two haves there are two separated sets of service levels, each with its own lounge and dining carriages and sets of sleepers. The kitchen, through which no passenger can transit, separates these two quarter-trains.

So on my reckoning, the consist comprises two locos, followed by one baggage carriage, then a Red class carriage (actually a third service level scarcely promoted, but comprising a single carriage with seats, and toilet/shower facilities, and access to a cafe), then the first power carriage, then the forward crew carriage, then a Gold carriage with single rooms and the wobbly central corridor, then three Gold doubles/twins, then the Gold Lounge, then the Gold diner, then the forward kitchen, then the Platinum diner, then Platinum Lounge, then several Platinum double/twin and single carriages.

The second power-generating carriage follows to split the passengers into the two halves, with the rear half being a mirror image of the first half, except for the Red Class and the locos.

I can find a combination which produces 33 with the only carriage not appearing in both halves being the single Red Class one.

Red Class looks like it will be withdrawn officially mid-year. I suspect it was at least partly publicly-funded because of either the backpacker transport angle, or the community responsibility obligation for providing transport in some of the more isolated places. I think the subsidy is being withdrawn, so the company is ditching the seats. As far as I can see, Red Class gets no marketing - not even on the company's website or publications. Maybe it was more directly targetted at communities along the line, or backpacker haunts.

But the train scarcely works as a long-haul economy passenger service anyway. Its lengthy halts at Katherine, Alice, and Coober Pedy (the train station for which is many kilometres, perhaps 40, from Coober Pedy and the Stuart Highway) mean it can't credibly call itself a travelling passenger service. The fare I understand applies is expensive by comparison to other ways of covering the country which are both more comfortable and more direct.

Instead, it is a cruise on steel wheels, The Ghan and the Indian-Pacific both. There's nothing wrong with that, but it is neither Amtrak's LD trains, nor even Via Rail's The Canadian, so can't easily be compared to either except in the most basic terms of train, ride, staffing, meals, and accommodation, all of which you'd expect the Oz trains to provide a premium on because of how they are priced and marketed.

I am now about to pull out of Alice Springs at 2200h, after a full day on the ground here, with a number of optional and included activities, all of which congregate at the historic Old Telegraph Station close to Alice, for a table-service, sit down BBQ at circular tables of ten set out on the sandy desert floor with the stars for our roof.


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## mcropod (May 16, 2019)

A rock wallaby considers the next move in an ascent at the rockfall near Simpson's Gap, in Central Australia's MacDonnell Ranges which surround Alice Springs.


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## mcropod (May 17, 2019)

There was next to no connectivity which coincided with awake hours on-train from Alice to now here at Port Pirie, as the dawn breaks on our last day aboard. We pull in to Adelaide a little after 1000h I believe and our progress indicates this should easily be achieved.

There would have been connectivity at Coober Pedy, but not at the station which serves it - Manguri - more than 40 kms to its west. And I don't want to take much with me on the excursions, some of which involve bushwalks.

So I'll fill you in on what happened in this section a little later, but I took loadsa pix and can put some of them up now.


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## mcropod (May 17, 2019)

The train awaits in the late afternoon sunshine at Manguri for us to board after a full day exploring the opal mining town of Coober Pedy and its surrounds.


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## mcropod (May 17, 2019)

The stations we have called in at have been reducing in size and magnificence as we head south. Then we reach here.


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## mcropod (May 17, 2019)

Opals are found underground. The miners found it was cooler underground than up top, 25C underground pretty constantly as opposed to mid-40s above. So many widened their exploration tunnels and created their homes there instead of on the surface.


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## mcropod (May 17, 2019)

There are function halls and churches underground as well.


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## mcropod (May 17, 2019)

Last night's evening meal menu


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## mcropod (May 17, 2019)

More detail of the single room in day mode.

There are cupboards, shelves, and recesses aplenty. The pull-out storage drawer under the seat is capacious.

There is a small collapsable table.

There is an overhead shelf which takes cabin-sized bags. There are three power outlets, three different lighting modes, and the small sink has drawers and cupboards for personal toiletries, as well as supplied towels (assiduously replaced daily), and a rubbish bin.

The window has an adjustable venetian blind within its double-glazing, and the bi-fold door is lockable from the inside. 

There is a multi-channel and fully adjustable volume control piped music system.

There is a stool opposite the seat (which of course can also be used as a seat.


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## mcropod (May 17, 2019)

The final stretch.


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## mcropod (May 17, 2019)

I forgot to post some above-ground scenes of Coober Pedy. Eat your heart out Hollywood!


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## mcropod (May 17, 2019)




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## mcropod (May 18, 2019)

Toes in St Vincent's Gulf (an arm of the Southern Ocean) at Glenelg, Adelaide


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## mcropod (May 18, 2019)

Civic responsibilities completed by casting an interstate ballot for my seat and the senate in Victoria, at Adelaide's interstate polling station


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## mcropod (May 18, 2019)

Some pix of Adelaide's CBD station which runs suburban network trains


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## mcropod (May 18, 2019)

If there's a disappointing aspect of The Ghan it's that so much of the trip is done through the dark of night.

In this longer-duration trek, called the Excursion timetable, one day longer than the timetable for most of the year, Katherine to Alice Springs was covered whilst asleep(ish), as was Alice to Coober Pedy, and then all but the last couple of hours from Coober Pedy to Adelaide.

It obviously maximises time in places our OS visitors would want to get to as they'd likely find such a contrast to their own lands, and the distances here can be daunting. But two things: one - most of the passengers I met were retiree Aussies who live in our capital cities who are having a short experience of what's billed as a luxury trip; and (b) - maybe the company is not brave enough to think that people would want to ride through hours of relatively unchanging landscape with "nothing to see out the window".

I think that's a pity. Even for us in Oz, it does a person good to see just how insignificant we are when up against nature. If you see how vast the landscape is, how fragile it is in many places, how it can survive with such little rainfall, and then consider how the Indigenous people managed to build a life here without laying waste to its meagre resources, it must have an impact on the way you think about the planet and your place in it.

The Ghan is a great train, with a keen and attentive staff, all very friendly despite being asked to look after their Nan and Pop for four days every waking hour. The catering is good-end capital city bistro (well in Melbourne anyway), there is no need to dip into your wallet from being picked-up from your hotel pre-trip and deposited at the front steps of your hotel at the other end. Thankfully, Oz does not have a tipping culture, mostly because from shortly after our beginnings as a new nation in 1901, we established the industrial relations principle of the living wage, and we still have an egalitarian view of the service-provider service-receiver relationship.

The off-train excursions are very well managed, cater for several different levels of activity (although there are none which would stretch the abilities of even the modestly fit and ambulant). Different interest levels are also catered to, so you needn't go all-out nature, you can pursue the human as well.

Like on LD Amtrak trains which don't stop for excursions (except the self-directed one at San Antonio on the Texas Eagle), the greater enjoyment is finding out an amazing thing or two about your dining and lounge-companions.

There's space to hide in your cabin when you want, but there's also good-sized communal areas as well. And free-running hot and cold drinks, alcoholic and otherwise.

There were non-Aussies aboard. The largest bunch were Kiwis, but there were some I spoke to from the USA (although she was born in EnZed), Germany, and Canada. I'm sure there was a small family or friend group from Japan I bumped into on some of the excursions, but they were in the other half of the train.

It's retired baby-boomer suburban Aussies you'll meet, with all their good and bad points - friendly, unoffensive, overwhelmingly Anglo, suburban, family-oriented, not greatly into the arts or ideas, socially conservative but in an each-to-their-own-way kind of way, much more comfortable talking about sport, and who like a beer or a wine. I am surrounded by them, so I know what to expect.

Taking the Indian-Pacific or The Ghan is a great way to safely traverse the country and see some of the inland highlights, but it's not going to let you experience its vastness the way you would by daylight travel on the road, deciding where you pull over to have a look.

As long as you think of it as an organised cruise on steel wheels you'll be fine and it'll meet your expectations. If you are from OS and haven't had much exposure to Oz, or aren't all that confident about travelling in Oz by yourself (not something to lightly consider), it's a great starter.

I'll write up the last couple of days on The Ghan in a little while.

Tomorrow I head home, during daylight, from Adelaide on The Overland.


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## mcropod (May 19, 2019)

Today's Overland loco readies to depart Adelaide for Melbourne


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## bretton88 (May 21, 2019)

caravanman said:


> Currently on a rail free cheapo two weeks in Turkey, I will be following your trip with interest, and also rooting for Labour in your elections.
> I had hopes of riding The Ghan from Alice Springs to Darwin some years ago, but it was sold out and I had to hire a car to drive up, instead  Probably better to plan ahead sometimes...
> 
> Ed.


Rail free? Turkey has some great trains. You're missing out! Lol.


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## bretton88 (May 21, 2019)

These photos look fantastic, I've always wanted to thank the overland or the Indian Pacific.


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## mcropod (May 22, 2019)

bretton88 said:


> Rail free? Turkey has some great trains. Lol.



I'd imagine caravanman was referring to *his* holiday in Turkey being a rail-free one, rather than Turkey being rail-free. 

As you say, Turkey has some very good lines.


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## mcropod (May 22, 2019)

bretton88 said:


> These photos look fantastic, I've always wanted to thank the overland or the Indian Pacific.



Don't delay. We'd love to welcome you to Oz!


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## mcropod (Jun 3, 2019)

I left you at Adelaide station as I prepared to board The Overland for its trip to Melbourne, although I was to decamp at one of the Geelong stations where I was to be picked up and whisked home by partner Niki.

The car leg was to save time, as it meant I only travelled one side of an equilateral triangle, rather than two as I would have done had I continued on The Overland to Melbourne, then caught a train back to Ballarat.

I took the higher-grade of travel class, called Red Premium. It gave me a carriage with seats arranged in a 2-1 layout, rather than a 2-2 in Red, as well as meals and drinks included and delivered to the seat, rather available for purchase from the cafe car.

The meals were a breakfast, a mid-day meal, and morning and afternoon teas.

I was allocated one of the single seats and the carriage was full. There were two Red class carriages.

There was a baggage carriage, but there was space overhead and at the front of the Red Premium carriage for other bags.


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## mcropod (Jun 3, 2019)

The Red Premium carriage


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## mcropod (Jun 3, 2019)

The menu


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## mcropod (Jun 3, 2019)

The curry dish and the desert selection


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## mcropod (Jun 3, 2019)

The Overland starts its journey with a climb eastwards out of Adelaide through the Adelaide Hills, also known as the Mt Lofty Ranges.

The loco has to make its way through several tunnels and around sharp bends on the climb, and takes it it a steady 50-60kph. Eventually we pass through the station at Mt Lofty at about 720 metres, then start our descent.

Much of this country is forested, with commuter stations dotted along the line. The farmland was grazing land, mostly beef, and there were kangaroos here and there.

The rail alignment joins the main Adelaide to Melbourne road alignment not long after and both rail and road cross the Murray River in close proximity at the aptly-named SA township of Murray Bridge. The road-traffic uses the original rail-bridge, and the rail crossing is now about a hundred metres downstream to its south.


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## mcropod (Jun 3, 2019)

The road bridge over the Murray at Murray Bridge which was the original railway bridge.


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## mcropod (Jun 3, 2019)

Despite crossing the Murray, I was still in South Australia, and not yet home in Victoria. That was still more than 200kms away to the south-east.

The Murray River does describe the border between Victoria and NSW, but not the border between Victoria and South Australia.

The main highway and rail alignments are close for much of the way until it gets to the Wimmera regional centre of Horsham in Victoria. By then the agriculture has become grain - wheat mostly - and dry-land farming. Irrigated country is much farther to the north, this country needs to survive on the meagre rainfall it gets.

There's a loop of rail northwards from Horsham to the grain centre of Murtoa, before it curves south again to rejoin the highway near Stawell.

Then, after departing Ararat less than an hour down the road, the line veers south, again off the main highway link to wend its way to Geelong, rather than take the more direct route through my home-town of Ballarat. I suspect the main reason for this is that there is an existing regular V-Line passenger service running the Ararat-Melbourne service, and V-Line did not want a rival service.

Anyway, this was new country for me to see, although it crossed roads I had travelled on in SW Victoria, and passed by landmarks I could recognise. As dusk approached, we neared the outskirts of Geelong where I disembarked and concluded my Oz journey on rails.


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## mcropod (Jun 3, 2019)

I have a couple of pix of the Glenelg tram in Adelaide which is worth a ride from the Adelaide CBD to the beachside suburb of Glenelg.

The line is one of SA's oldest, and has been reconfigured several times from steam heavy, to horse-drawn trolley, to its now tram or light rail service.

It picks up from Adelaide's main thoroughfare King William Street as a standard streetcar/tram service, then runs along its own dedicated off-street line for most of its length until it nears Glenelg, at which time it reverts to a standard street-running tram service to its terminus on the beach.

There are a number of stops along the way, including for Morphettville, Adelaide's main (horse) racecourse. Glenelg is a lovely spot, where restaurants and recreation places abound.


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## mcropod (Jun 3, 2019)

Glenelg Tram at Glenelg Terminus


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## mcropod (Jun 3, 2019)

Glenelg Tramline and on the road (through the rear window)


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## oregon pioneer (Jun 3, 2019)

Glenelg must have been named by someone homesick for the Scottish Highlands. I see that there is a Glenelg in the state of Maryland, as well.


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## oregon pioneer (Jun 3, 2019)

Glenelg must have been named by someone homesick for the Scottish Highlands. I see that there is a Glenelg in the state of Maryland, as well.


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## oregon pioneer (Jun 3, 2019)

Glenelg must have been named by someone homesick for the Scottish Highlands. I see that there is a Glenelg in the state of Maryland, as well.


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## mcropod (Jun 3, 2019)

oregon pioneer said:


> Glenelg must have been named by someone homesick for the Scottish Highlands. I see that there is a Glenelg in the state of Maryland, as well.



I'm sure it is. And, it's a place-name entirely suited to its run-from-either-end tram service.

To make things complete, we'd want the driver to be called Otto, or Anna, or Bob


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