I didn’t think, when I awoke on Sunday morning that I would find myself interested in rail gauges, but that was to be. We had embarked on a 48 hour journey, travelling across two thirds of Australia from Perth to Adelaide on the Indian Pacific railway.
By 1917 it was possible to travel by train from the Indian Ocean at Perth to the Pacific Ocean at Sydney. Problem was that a mix of rail track gauges had been created to suit different trains – anything from 9” wide to 5’4”. This necessitated passengers changing from one train to another up to six times across the full journey.
It was not until 1969 that a standard gauge rail system (at 5’4” wide) was created across the full width of the country that enabled passengers to complete the journey on just one train.
While the development of the railway may have been welcomed by many, it was not the case for all. In 1882 Aboriginal people around the area of Ooldea, on the east side of the Nullarbor plain, considered the arriving steam train was a great white snake carrying wicked spirits. Today, some might consider that still to be true having viewed the contents of the bar area.
Our journey took us through some towns with interesting names such as Koolyanobbing, six hours by train from Perth; Tarcoola, Kingoonya and Wirraminna. Many of these small settlements support farming communities. A lot of the land we travel through is given over to sheep farming and hay production. Other locations, such as Cook (between Perth and Adelaide) comprise just four residents who provide accommodation for train drivers changing shifts and staying between 8 and 30 hours.
The Indian Pacific crawls at a snail’s pace compared to our high speed trains, but having 31 coaches going at a faster pace might see the rear carriages shooting off the rails, just like kids when they run around the playground hands linked in a long chain.
We saw our first kangaroos (at a distance) an hour into our journey, and after four hours we saw a low flying helicopter. These are used to round up sheep across huge swathes of land. We passed several small sites with airstrips which also double up for the Flying Doctors who provide vital emergency support to rural communities and, indeed, train occupants in this vast outback. One train driver had to be taken off by the Flying Doctor after he was bitten by a poisonous spider. Luckily, this was not on our train.
At certain points along the route we were given the opportunity to stretch our legs. This included a visit to Australia’s second biggest pit, the Super Pit in Kalgoorlie, which mines gold. The trouble was that we arrived at 10pm so a lot of the views were in darkness, but we did get the opportunity to jump on a digger or two, which were huge. The rest of the community were either employed to entertain us or were in bed, apart from a few young guys going to a local bar for a few bevvies.
The potential of the area, where Kalgoorlie later became established, was discovered by chance. In 1893 prospector Paddy Hannah found a substantial amount of gold nuggets and this sparked the biggest gold rush in Australian history. It is still a gold mine today, in more ways than one. The pit is so large it can be seen from space.
We also found out there are feral camels, introduced to the country to transport food and equipment when the Super Pit was being developed. We have not seen any so far, but they did make a lovely curry at lunchtime! Truly.
Breakfast off the train the following morning gave us the chance to have a look at the entire length of our 31 carriage train when we disembarked at Rawlinna, which borders the largest sheep station in the Southern Hemisphere, comprising 80,000 sheep. Try counting them in your sleep.
Soon after, the landscape started to slowly change to semi-desert. Where once we saw trees and bushes, we now viewed a vast expanse of red coloured sand and low lying salt bushes – trees cannot survive in this calcium-rich ground which was once seabed.
We completed our journey in Adelaide, which we will use as a base for other trips in the surrounding regions.
Copyright: Words and photos Sue Barnard 2020
PS Apologies, wi fi problems meant that yesterday’s posting came across without photos.