KEY POINTS:
The harmonica was made for the Outback. Its lonesome moan can be your best friend when there's time on your hands and the never-never never stops.
Ronald Evans, a Welshman I met while picking fruit in Victoria, and I were hitchhiking through South Australia's Outback in 1975 to wherever the next ride took us. But the next ride was taking its time so we packed it in for another day. I used a little of our valuable water to wash the red dust from my eyes, teeth and gums and, while Ron played his harmonica, I pondered those who planted the date palm under which we slept for the second night.
It was the Afghans, a lazy generalisation concocted by the 19th-century Australians for the men who wore a turban, prayed five times a day, built mosques in the middle of nowhere, never ate pork, had more than one missus, smoked hashish and opium but, bugger me days, never touched alcohol.
They were imported to control the camel that proved too unwieldy for any European. From the 1860s, about 3000 of them came to Australia and they dropped date stones as they helped establish this country.
Loading their ships of the desert with everything the Outback needed — poles for the Adelaide to Darwin telegraph line, or wire, or flour, or salt or tea and everything else, they trekked thousands of desolate kilometres to places like Curdimurka, Oodnadatta, and Lake Cadibarrawirracanna.
And just when the camels thought they had shed their load, on went three or four bales of wool for the return trip. As New Zealand was colonised by its rivers, so South Australia, and the rest of Australia's interior, was by the Afghans and their camels.
When the first section of rail tracks opened in 1879, it signalled the beginning of the end for camel traffic but it took another 50 years for the line to reach Alice Springs and 120 years to reach Darwin, 3000km north of Adelaide and its originally intended destination.
Its official title, the Afghan Express, was much too ostentatious for the Outback Aussies. They pulled its head in by calling it simply the Ghan. Always have. Always will. Cattlemen, miners, and very few women travelled on the Ghan. Wilfred Thomas joined them in the 1930s and wrote about it in his book, Living On Air: "My carriage was one of those long ones with seats down the side. At least there were seats until some of my fellow-passengers tore them up to make room to dance in, to the music of the bagpipes which one of them played [they were] jigging and yelping and hoo-roo-ing up and down the aisle."
The Ghan was an iron river to the heartland of Australia and as it slowly but inevitably claimed transport dominance, it became open season on the camel. The animals that opened up this inhospitable land were now pests, and shot in their thousands.
Concurrently, the Ghan suffered delays as heat buckled rails, termites ate sleepers, and flash floods washed away sections of line that could delay the 50-hour journey by days, even weeks, and when a string of camels passed a stranded train, the Afghans would shout "Hah, hah get a camel, you idiot!"
Later, while having a beer in the Ghan's lounge with Bob, who has been travelling on the Ghan since the 50s, spins me a yarn: "There was this sheila travelling up to the Alice back in ah, the early 70s. Anyhow, she keeps asking the conductor when they're going to arrive because she was, you know, in the family way. Well, the conductor's getting a little peeved by now and tells her she shouldn't have got on the train in that condition. She says, and I love this bit, she says, 'Well, when I got on the train, mate, I wasn't in this condition'," and laughs like he has heard it for the first time.
Even though the line was transplanted up to 300km to the west in 1980 to avoid nature's extremes, it didn't guarantee delays.
The train I ride includes five first-class, two holiday, two coach, four dining, one staff, one power, one luggage and seven motorail carriages. That ain't nothin', since starting its Darwin run, the train has doubled in length again so the driver is almost in a different time-zone from the last carriage.
Even so, my Ghan carries enough passengers to warrant two sittings in Stuart's Restaurant, the first-class dining car. As I'm eating my mains of kangaroo fillet, seasoned with native pepper-leaf and served with a bush tomato chutney tartlet, a waiter brings a candle-burning birthday cake to the next table, where Gerry Cetenko is celebrating his birthday with some friends from Italy.
The lounge bar singing is getting raucous though no one has ripped up any seats to create dancing room before I return to my carriage, Tarcoola, named after the town where the Ghan now turns north off the line it shares with the Indian Pacific, a train that pierces the Nullarbor Plain between Sydney and Perth on one of the longest train journeys on Earth.
I take a hot shower in my private air-conditioned cabin, turn off the piped music, turn off the overhead reading lights and watch a moonlit landscape while the never-never never stops. As I climb into the bed with fresh sheets and fluffy pillows, I reminisce about sleeping under the date palm decades ago and, to the rhythm of the clickedy-clack-clickedy-clack, quietly play the harmonica.
AUSTRALIAN TRAIN JOURNEYS
• Indian Pacific (Perth-Adelaide-Sydney)
• The Overland (Adelaide-Melbourne)
• The Ghan (Adelaide-Alice Springs-Darwin)
www.gsr.com.au
• Spirit of the Outback (Brisbane-Longreach)
www.railaustralia.com.au/spirit
• The Tilt Train (Brisbane-Cairns)
www.railaustralia.com.au/tilt_train.htm
• The Sunlander (Brisbane-Cairns)
www.railaustralia.com.au
• The Inlander (Townsville-Mt Isa)
www.railaustralia.com.au
• The Westlander (Brisbane-Charleville)
www.railaustralia.com.au
• Kuranda Scenic Railway
www.kurandascenicrailway.com.au
• The Prospector (Perth-Kalgoorlie)
Puffing Billy www.puffingbilly.com.au
• West Coast Wilderness Railway (Strahan-Queenstown-Tasmania)
www.puretasmania.com.au
Further details are available on www.traveltrain.com.au
TRAVEL NOTES: The Ghan
GETTING THERE
The Ghan travels 2979km from Adelaide to Darwin via Alice Springs, and vice versa, twice-weekly, with connections to the Indian Pacific (Sydney-Perth) and The Overland (Adelaide-Melbourne). Qantas offers three direct services a week to Adelaide and daily services via Sydney and daily connections to Darwin via Sydney.
MORE INFORMATION
The Ghan is popular and it is advisable to book ahead.
Use credit cards and cash on train. EFTPOS and ATMs are not available.
Checked-in luggage is not accessible on journey. If you take a laptop, or similar, it's recommended you take a surge arrestor.
A variety of optional Whistle Stop Tours, taking about one hour, are available at Alice Springs and Katherine. Book and pay for these on the train.
Queensland's vast terrain is split into three categories for its train journeys — coastal, Outback, and tropical.
First-class sleeping accommodation is in single and twin berth compartments, all with washbasin, wardrobe, reading lights, power point, bedding and towels. Twin berths also have full-length mirrors.
Economy cabins have three berths, washbasin, reading light, power point, blanket, lower sheet, pillow and pillowslip.
USEFUL WEBSITES
www.gsr.com.au , www.south-australia.com, www.travelnt.com , www.australia.com .
BOOKING
Contact your nearest Aussie Specialist Premier Agent on 0800 151 085 or talk to your local travel agent.
COMPETITION
1. Click here here to WIN The Ghan Ultimate Journey
2. For more information on Australia click here
