Before our travel we had been unable to find any comprehesive reference for this journey and so were pleased to find a complementary guide book in our cabins. Entitled, 'An adventure that spans Australia', it covers the legend of the eagle (the Wedge-tailed Eagle is the emblem of the Indian Pacific), an history of the development of the route, a description of the train and details of the places we were to travel though. The overview which follows is enhanced with extracts from this guide book.

See photographs of this journey

The Eagle

The emblem of the Indian Pacific is the Wedge-tailed Eagle, the biggest eagle on earth. Its magnificant wingspan symbolises this adventure that spans the Australian continent. There are images of the eagle throughout the train and during the journey we have several sightings of the bird itself.

The Development of the Route

The standard gauge railway line across Australia was completed in 1969, creating an uninterrupted rail thoroughfare from the Pacific Ocean in the East to the Indian Ocean in the West. It ended a bewildering and sometimes bitter saga that had plagued and divided Australia for over 100 years.

The story begins over fifty years before Federation when the individual colonies of Australia exhibited intense rivalry. An atmosphere of separation rather than unity pervaded their dealings and they disagreed about everything, especially over the most appropriate common railway gauge to serve the nation effectively.

When New South Wales planned its Sydney to Parramata line in 1849, its Irish engineer chose the broad gauge used in his native Ireland. However, before construction began he was sacked. His replacement, a Scot was a staunch advocate of the standard gauge and so Australia's first railway was built to this. Victoria and South Australia had however been convinced the Irishman was right and had ordered their rolling stock accordingly. Infuriated by New South Wales last minute change, Victoria and South Australia proceeded with their plans and constructed a broad gauge railway.

Meanwhile Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia had discovered narrow gauge dimensions were much cheaper to build. Despite the examples of both Britain and America who had realised only a single uniform gauge was workable, these colonies constructed in narrow gauge!

In 1917 The Commonwealth Government funded and built the Trans Australian standard gauge line. Two teams constructed the line, with one starting from Port Augusta in South Australia and the other from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Camels carried wooden sleepers out to the work gangs on the Nullarbor plain. Coal and water, essential for the steam engines did not exist along the line and so these too were carried, sometimes for many hundreds of kilometres.

In 17 October 1917 the two teams met and the line was joined at what is now the little South Australian siding of Ooldea out on the Nullarbor plain.

With this line a coast to coast link had been established. However the journey, routed through Melbourne, remained crippled by three conflicting gauges and passengers continually faced the frustration of changing trains. The journey went something like this: Sydney to Albury on standard gauge, change at Albury to Melbourne continue to Adelaide and through to Port Pirie on broad gauge, change at Port Pirie through to Port Augusta and on to Kalgoorlie on standard gauge, and finally change at Kalgoorlie to Perth on narrow gauge.

It was not until 1969 when the standard gauge line was completed in its present form over the route. The first unbroken journey of the new Indian Pacific commenced at Sydney Central on Monday evening 23 February 1970. This was completed on 27 February 1970 as the train, welcomed by a crowd of around 10,000, burst through a banner of streamers to arrive at the East Perth terminal.

The Train

The Indian Pacific is a minature city, a highly organised and self-contained community of several hundred people which relies on little outside assistance during the journey. The Indian Pacific is fully airconditioned and so the on board temperature remains constant regardless of the sometimes extreme climatic conditions outside. A range of accomodation options are available:

Deluxe Compartment

Twice the size of a normal twinette, this compartment offers the same facilities with the addition of 2 arm chairs, a double bed plus an upper berth and 2 windows to increase viewing pleasure. Only one of these cabins is available on the Indian Pacific. They cost twice as much as the standard first class fare.

Twinette sleepers

The non-smoking First Class Twinette Sleeper features a three seater lounge which converts to upper and lower berths at night. Each compartment features an en suite bathroom containing shower, wash basin and toilet. Towels and face washers are replaced with fresh articles each day. A 3 pin 240 volt AC power point for shavers and hairdriers is provided, along with a wardrobe containing hanging space, a full length mirror, individual reading lamps above each berth, a foldaway table beside the viewing window, ample luggage storage space and a Conductor call button. Each First Class carriage contains 16 berths.

Roomette sleepers

The Indian Pacific's First Class Roomette Sleepers are private non-smoking single compartments, with a one seater loung chair which converts into a single sleeping berth at night. Roomettes have most of the features of the twinette sleepers, including wash basin and toilet. Showers are located at the end of the carriage.

Holiday class twinette sleepers

These private compartments are the same size as the First Class Roomettes. They comprise two facing lounge chairs which easily convert to upper and lower sleeping berths. The shower and toilet are located at the end of the carriage.

Coach class

With a choice of smoking or non-smoking cars, Coach Class passengers enjoy comfortable two-abreast reclining seats with fold out footstools. There is ample leg room, and the seats also swivel to face each other. Showers and toilets are at the end of the carriages, with powder rooms for ladies. Card tables are available.

Queen Adelaide restaurant

The Queen Adelaide Restaurant, available only to First Class passengers, offers a unique dining experience. The first class fare includes all meals, but not wine. The Restaurant can seat up to 48 passengers. There can be up to three sittings for each meal and the Senior Dining Car Steward will contact you very soon after departure to determine which sitting you prefer. Whilst he'll do his utmost to give you the meal time that suits you best it's not always possible to meet the request of every passenger. First sittings are around 07.00 hrs for breakfast, 12.00 hrs for lunch and 18.00 hrs for dinner, Second sitting times are about 08.00 hrs, 13.00 hrs and 19.00 hrs. Third sitting times are about 09.00 hrs, 14.00 hrs and 20.00 hrs.

The three course meals aboard the Indian Pacific are all freshly prepared throughout the journey by a team of professional chefs. The wine list offers a selection of fine Australian wines for purchase.

Silver Tree lounge

The First Class lounge car comfortably seats up to 50 passengers. It's a particluarly popular place to meet for pre-dinner drinks. For smokers there's a 'bubble' - a completely enclosed area within the lounge car - for their relief. There is a good range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks to choose from, as well as snacks and souvenirs.

Holiday class lounge

Located next to Matilda's Restaurant (Holiday class dining), this lounge is for the use of Holiday Class passengers. Here you can enjoy alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks to choose from, as well as snacks purchased from Matilda's Restaurant.

Coach class buffet car

Here Coach Class passengers can purchase at the counter a wide range of meals, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and snacks. However, your food and drink must be consumed at your seat.

Special needs

Special dietary needs can be caterd for aboard the Indian Pacific if you give advanced notice. Wheelchairs designed to fit the aisles can also be arranged. Conductors are on duty for the entire journey and are trained in first aid. Oxygen bottles are carried on board in the event of an emergency.

Luggae

First class passengers are permitted 80 Kg of luggage. Although First class passengers are welcome to take their luggage into their compartment, luggage can also be checked through to the train's destination and carried in the luggage van. Economy Class passengers are allowed 50 Kg of free luggage, which is carried in the luggage van.

Motorail

Motorail offers the option of taking your car with you on the Indian Pacific. Cars can be loaded in Perth, Port Augusta, Adelaide and Sydney.

Tickets, etc.

Our bookings for the train were made from the UK through Leisurail, P.O. Box 113, Peterborough, PE3 8HY phone 01733 33559, fax 01733 505451. From Australia bookings and departure times can be obtained through Rail Australia, phone 132 232.

Fares, Timetables, Maps, etc

The Indian Pacific web site


Our journey

Friday 24 May 1996

It's 13.00 hrs, the weather is pleasantly hot and sunny, and we've recently arrived at East Perth railway terminal. Passing a preserved steam engine, we make our way onto platform number 1. The Indian Pacific train stands in front of us ready to start it's 4,352 kilometre journey. During the next 65 hours this will become our mobile home as we travel from coast to coast, ocean to ocean, across the massive Australian continent before we finally arrive in Sydney. We are about to board one of the world's great trains and experience one of the world's greatest and longest train journeys.

We stroll down the platform, starting at the front of the Indian Pacific train. The green and yellow liveried diesel engine of Australia National railways, this one named 'City of Port Augusta', throbs gently at the head. Behind this are three first class sleeper carriages, then the first class Silver Tree lounge carriage and the Queen Adelaide Restaurant car. Three more first class sleeper carriages follow, one in particular is creating a lot of attention as this contains the only deluxe suite on the train. Passengers look enviously through the darkened windows of this and try to imagine who must be travelling in here.

We continue down the platform past the holiday class lounge, restaurant and sleeper cars before reaching the coach class buffet car and carriages. Finally a flat bed carriage carrying spare axles and several Motorail carriages carrying passengers cars make up the rear. The total length of this Indian Pacific, we are told, is 400 metres.

Having completed the exterior inspection of our accommodation for the next three nights, and with the time at 13.30 hrs, we find a bench in the shade where we sit and wait to be invited to board. Fifteen minutes later as we enter our first class carriage, the conductor enquires whether we would like tea or coffee with our morning wake up call. He then directs us to our cabins. We are in carriage F, berths 9, 10, 11 & 12.

The first class cabins are finished in wood panelling and consist of a comfortable and spacious three seater lounger with a small fold away table by the window. Behind the door is a full length mirror. Under the lounger, which converts into the lower berth, is a large space for storing luggage. Above the lounger is the foldaway upper berth. There are individual reading lights for lower and upper berths. The upper berth also has a small fold away table of it's own. Opposite the lounger are two wardrobes, further luggage storage space and the door to the toilet. Above the wardrobes and toilet compartment is yet more luggage storage space. Between the toilet door and one of the wardrobes is a mirror with it's own side lighting and a 240 volt AC power point for shaving and the like. On the shelf in front of the mirror are two complimentary toiletry bags printed with an Aboriginal design and finished with the Indian Pacific emblem. Inside are toothbrush and paste, flannel, soap and sewing kit. The toilet compartment consists of a shower, a fold away stainless steel wash basin and a fold away stainless steel toilet. There is a mirror and shelf along with a small cupboard full of towels and flannels. A door connecting our two cabins is also here.

We complete our study of the cabin as the conductor calls with cups of hot chocolate and cake our daughters, and coffee and cake for ourselves. The train departs at about 14.00 hrs, 25 minutes late, and shortly after this the senior dining car steward calls to ask which sitting we would prefer for our meals. On this trip their will be two sittings and we choose the second, hence our meal times will be about 08.00 hrs for breakfast, 13.00 hrs for lunch and 19.00 hrs for dinner.

We finish our refreshments and, now familiar with our immediate accommodation, we venture out along the carriage corridors. We pass through the Queen Adelaide restaurant and on into the Silver Tree lounge. Here we can buy alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks and also snacks. There is also complimentary tea and coffee constantly available from a self serve area.

Outside the vast continent of Australia slowly begins to unfold. There are kilometre markers next to the track and these give the distance from or to various places on route. The train timetable shows the kilometre peg number for each destination. Since these are measurements from different locations there is no clear indication of position from your starting point. To work this out requires some basic math, but this is frustrated by some minor yet significant details being omitted from the timetable. I try to fill in the cumulative distance from Perth using other references to hand.

47 km from Perth we pass the junction of the Brockman and Avon Rivers and between here and Northam the train runs beside the Avon through the delightful Avon Valley. The river Avon flows through the Avon National Park to eventually become the Swan River.

About 100 km out of Perth we pass through Toodyay, classified by the National Trust as an historic town, with many buildings of historical significance. A focal point in the town is the imposing Connor's Mill, which now houses the Tourist Information Centre and a working steam engine.

At about 16.00 hrs and 120 km from Perth we stop briefly at Northam, one of Western Australia's pioneer country centres and first linked to Perth by rail in 1871 it was a natural stepping off point for gold prospectors. Located in the heart of the beautiful Avon Valley it contains historic buildings such as Buckland House and Byfield House and also the longest suspension bridge in Australia. A little wheatbelt town, Meckering, just east of Northam was reduced to rubble on 14 October 1968 by an earthquake which swept across the southern half of Western Australia. A low escarpment created by the earthquake can still be seen.

We roll on and as the sun goes down stop briefly at Merredin, 284 km from Perth.

At 20.00 hrs we are called to dinner and proceed to the Queen Adelaide Restaurant for our first meal aboard the Indian Pacific. The restaurant seats 48 passengers, four to a table. Each table is in its own booth, separated by half height etched glass partitions. Curtains adorn the windows and the over window lighting strips are ornately patterned. Each end of the restaurant car is in dark wood with the Queen Adelaide emblem each side of the door. The door itself is half glazed with an etched pattern on the glass.

The comprehensive menu offers a choice for all three courses and provides further distraction as it contains the entire menu for the journey. Meals are titled according to each leg of the journey. This dinner is 'Perth to Kalgoorlie'. Whilst we ponder our selections the bar steward visits each table taking the drink and wine orders.

Our waiter takes our meal order and very shortly delivers the first course. Service is courteous and extremely quick, a practise needed when having to deliver up to three sittings per meal. The food is reasonably good, if a little 'packaged' - something better than airline food but still of that general order (At Adelaide I am to discover the reason why this is, and this confirms my first impressions).

During dinner we pass through Southern Cross 403 km from Perth. Gold was discovered here six years before Kalgoorlie. Now a prosperous agricultural area, the town is named after the star constellation which appears vividly in the sky each cloudless night above the Australian outback, and also symbolically on the Australian flag. During spring the area around Southern Cross is ablaze with the spectacular colours of Western Australia's wildflowers.

After dinner we retire to the Silver Tree lounge car where we buy drinks from the bar and help ourselves to limitless free tea or coffee. Then we relax in the individual arm chairs and sink into the luxurious settees. Side tables are provided and these have very solid and heavy bases to counteract the movement of the train. During the daytime there are excellent panoramic views through the windows of the lounge car but now it is total darkness as we rattle on towards Kalgoorlie.

At 23.00 hrs we stop at Kalgoorlie 623 km from Perth and situated on the western fringe of the Nullarbor Plain. The km peg count changes and it is now 1,781 km from Port Pirie. I have now worked out the information missing from the printed timetable and add to it the total distance travelled from Perth.

The famous golden mile links Kalgoorlie and Boulder and as the centre of Australia's gold mining industry, Kalgoorlie is often referred to as the 'Queen of the Golden Mile'. It is reputedly the richest square mile of land in the world, producing some 70% of Australia's gold. Today there are around 27,000 people in this city and Kalgoorlie has broadened its base with the growth of the nickel industry and the development of the region as a pastoral centre. It was proclaimed the city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in 1989 and is developing rapidly as a tourist centre.

Gold was first discovered here on 15 June 1893 by Paddy Hannan and within a week 1,400 prospectors had moved into the area. The first miners here were ravaged by typhoid and progress was slowly strangled through lack of water essential to the gold extracting process. In 1903 an engineer C. Y. O'Connor overcame the problem by damming the Helena River at Mundaring near Perth and constructing a pipeline 506 km long to transport the water to Kalgoorlie. For many kilometres on route to Kalgoorlie this pipeline can be seen running alongside the track.

A bus usually meets the train at Kalgoorlie to take passengers on a tour of the city to see its magnificent old hotels and buildings dating back from the early goldfield days. The architecture ranges from Classical to Australian colonial, form Moorish to Italian Renaissance.

We go to bed and I find the combination of the comfortable berth and gentle rocking motion quickly induces a deep and restful sleep.


Saturday 25 May 1996

The train rolls on through the night out onto the Nullarbor and we pass through numerous small settlements and sidings, some commemorating former Australian Prime Ministers.

At 1,722 km from Port Pirie (682 km from Perth) we pass through Curtin named after John Curtin who became Prime Minister in 1941.

Blamey (712 km from Perth) is named after Field Marshall Sir Thomas Blamey. Born in Wagga, New South Wales, in 1884 and serving at Gallipoli and France in the First World War, Blamey went on to become Commander in Chief of the Australian Army in World War Two. When he died in 1951, 300,000 people line the route of his funeral procession in Melbourne to pay their respects to Australia's greatest soldier.

Chifley (762 km from Perth) is named after Prime Minister Joseph Benedict (Ben) Chifley.

Kitchener (892 km from Perth) is a siding named after Lord Kitchener of Khartoum who visited Australia before the First World War and publicly criticised the country's bewildering railway gauges. He observed the railway network favoured an enemy invasion, rather than a defence.

At about 04.15 hrs the train stops briefly at Rawlinna (1,001 km from Perth). This lineside settlement marks the western extremity of the Nullarbor, it's the first stop on the mighty plain, and the end of vegetation as the train heads east. Shortly after we pass through Wilban (1,035 km from Perth) which, during World War Two housed Italian prisoners of war. A sign on the Northern side of the track marks where the POW camp stood and the limestone borders the prisoners laid out between their huts are still visible.

As dawn begins to break and at 1,129 km from Perth the train enters the longest straight stretch of railway track on earth. For the next 478 kilometres, two thirds of the distance across the Nullarbor, the track runs ruler-straight. 35 km later we pass through Loongana, a former watering stop for steam trains and noted for its stalactite caves which are common beneath the limestone surface of the Nullarbor.

At about 06.45 hrs we are awakened by our conductor with our morning coffee. As we drink we sit in our berths viewing the vast emptiness outside the window and are rewarded with our first sighting of Wedge-Tailed eagles soaring above the Nullarbor.

A short time later, just past 07.00 hrs, we stop briefly at Forrest 1,266 km from Perth. This tiny settlement is known more for its aerodrome than its railway siding. Its traditional arched hangar and runway can be seen from the train. Before the days of non-stop jets between Sydney and Perth, passenger aircraft refuelled here. It's the longest sealed and lit runway outside Australia's capital cities and is maintained as an emergency landing strip for jets as well as a vital refuelling stop for light aircraft. There's also a weather station here. Forrest is named after Sir John Forrest, a former Premier of Western Australia, who was the first European to make a successful crossing of the Nullarbor on foot and is recognised today as the father of the Trans Australia railway.

As we breakfast, this meal being the 'Kalgoorlie to Cook' on the menu, we pass through Deakin, 1,350 km from Perth, and named after yet another Prime Minister. Shortly after, at 1,354 km from Perth we cross the Western Australia/South Australia border. In this vast emptiness of the Nullarbor I am amused, yet saddened, that the large trackside signs announcing the crossing point are defaced with aerosol sprayed graffiti.

Hughes (1,403 km from Perth) is named after Australia's famous World War One Prime Minister, William 'Billy' Hughes and has the distinction of being South Australia's most westerly town.

Around 10.00 hrs we pull into a siding just outside of Cook. We wait here for some time whilst the Indian Pacific from Sydney completes its stop at this the halfway point of the Trans Australian line. The East-West train departs and we pull into Cook (1,490 km from Perth), the only place on the Nullarbor plain where we can leave the train. While the crew replenish the water tanks beneath the carriages, we explore the town and as we step from the train a humorous sign reads, 'Our hospital needs your help, get sick!', and on the other side, 'If you're crook, come to Cook'.

Cook is named after ... you've guessed it ... a former Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Cook. Despite its remote location it is a thriving community with a two storey school, a swimming pool and an excellent hospital at the end of its glaring white main street. Royal Flying Doctor aircraft land on the dirt strip on the edge of town and taxi right up to the front door of the hospital, which also acts as the Cook Weather Station. Nursing staff keep official daily records of the weather conditions. Cook also has a golf course, but don't expect to find any grass on this! The local school teacher tells us a few statistics - 41 trains a day cross the Nullarbor and the school has 24 pupils.

Back on board we continue eastwards and as we take lunch, the 'Cook to Tarcoola' on the menu, we pass through Watson (1,595 km from Perth). North of the track is a vast and controversial area known as Maralinga which was a nuclear bomb testing ground in the 1950's.

At 1,607 km from Perth we reach the eastern end of the longest straight. Shortly after we pass through Ooldea (1,628 km from Perth), Aboriginal for 'water source', this siding is the only natural water source on the Nullarbor. Here water bubbles to the surface from what is thought to be a massive underground river flowing from the Musgrave Ranges to the north. It was here that the two teams who constructed the line met on 17 October 1917.

Bates (1,679 km from Perth) is a siding named after Mrs Daisy Bates CBE who, in 1917, predicted the decline of the Aborigines of the Nullarbor and who devoted her life to their welfare until she retired to Adelaide, where she died in 1951.

About 16.00 hrs we stop briefly at Barton (1,708 km from Perth), named after Australia's first Prime Minister, Sir Edmund Barton, this railway settlement of just three or four dwellings clings to the line amid the rolling red sand dunes which mark the eastern boundary of the Nullarbor. Barton's airstrip lies right beside the train tracks.

Around 18.30 hrs and 1,900 km from Perth the train stops for a few minutes at Tarcoola. Here is the junction of the Trans Australian line and the Central Australian line north to Alice Springs. The township began life as a gold mining town during the 1890's gold rush and is named after ... no, not another Prime Minister, but ... the Melbourne Cup winner of 1893. It was a busy railway town in the days of steam when trains stopped here for coal and water before continuing into the Nullarbor.

During dinner, the 'Tarcoola to Adelaide' on the menu, we pass through Pimba (2,131 km from Perth). In the desert here is Narrungar, one of the most secretive locations in Australia. This American military installation, operated by Space Command of the United States Air Force, is part of the US Early Warning System and controls satellites of importance to international security. During the 1991 Gulf War Narrungar assisted UN Forces by detecting Scud missile launching sites in Iraq. Also beyond Pimba is Woomera, Aboriginal for 'a throwing stick'. In the late 1940's a joint British-American rocket range was established here, and the Indian Pacific runs along the southern edge of this still restricted area.

After dinner the train director announces the time change from Western Standard Time to Central Standard Time, and we adjust our watches one and a half hours forward. Then, after a quick drink in the lounge car, we retire for our second night aboard the Indian Pacific.


Sunday 26 May 1996

In the early hours of the morning we stop at Port Augusta (2,314 km from Perth), the hub of Australia National's operations and where their carriage workshops are located. In here the massive Indian Pacific Refurbishment Programme is currently taking place.

We leave Port Augusta and shortly after pass through Port Germein (2,381 km from Perth) which briefly found glory as a grain port when the first farming ventures began just beyond the Flinders Ranges. Once tall masted sailing ships jostled for anchorage space in this port, but all this ceased when drought struck the over farmed landscape. A single reminder remains with the jetty which stretches 1.6 km out into the bay, the longest in the southern hemisphere. In day light this can be seen from the train.

At 2,404 km from Perth we pass through Coonamia, skirting Port Pirie four kilometres away. From the train the giant smelter which dominates the Port can be seen. Reaching to a height of 205 metres it's here that much of the ore from Broken Hill is smelted, refined and exported.

We pass Crystal Brook (2,427 km from Perth) before dawn. In 1839 an explorer call Eyre named this after the clear water he found nearby. The railway station, unlike most, is right in the middle of the town.

Our second dawn breaks and we are about an hour outside Adelaide. We pass through Two Wells named from the large wells which supply the town water. This is a major market garden centre growing year round food crops for Adelaide and Interstate markets. From the train you can see its rows of glass houses and fruit trees.

We arrive at Adelaide's Keswick Passenger Terminal about 06.00 hrs and have now travelled 2,627 km since leaving Perth one and a half days ago. Here some passengers leave the train, whilst others join - some having arrived earlier on the Ghan from Alice Springs.

Walking down the platform at Adelaide I notice the restaurant car being restocked. The food containers are marked Qantas InFlight Catering. Now I know why the meals remind me of airline food!

We leave Adelaide about 08.00 hrs and settle down for breakfast. The train now retraces its route to Crystal Springs before continuing to press on eastwards bound for Sydney.

About 10.30 hrs we pass through Gladstone (2,866 km from Perth) which boasts the largest prison north of Adelaide and an imposing two storey railway building which, in the days of steam and different gauges, once housed refreshment rooms and a hotel for passengers stopping overnight.

Jamestown (2,896 km from Perth), named after an early Governor of South Australia, Sir James Ferguson, is a pretty country town in the heart of the state's wheat and grazing district. The elegant old railway station is now a museum under the care of the National Trust.

About 11.40 hrs and 2,932 km from Perth we arrive at Peterborough. Prior to 1969, passengers arriving here could find the convergence of three different railway gauges, creating confusion of the highest order. Originally called Petersburg, the town changed its name in 1917 as World War One raged in Europe and German names were purged from the South Australian map.

Lunch is yet another three course affair and we all long for something a little more real - and plain. One can only take so much of the Qantas 'rich cuisine semi package' meals.

Half an hour before Broken Hill we pass through Cockburn (3,168 km from Perth). Here we cross the South Australia/New South Wales border and have many sightings of Wedge-Tailed eagles.

Around 15.30 hrs we stop at Broken Hill (3,227 km from Perth). Sometimes known as Silver City it began in 1883 when a boundary rider called Charles Rasp noticed something odd about rock outcrops at a place called The Broken Hill. Digging here revealed one of the richest ore supplies in the world. Not just gold, but also lead, zinc and silver deposits which were to be supplemented later by the discovery of one of the world's few sources of uranium. The Broken Hill mines now produce 2 million tonnes of ore every year. From the train the views away from the town are dominated by huge manmade hills, known as mullock heaps, created out of the rubbish from the mines.

As the sun goes down on our third day on the train we pass through Menindee (3,352 km from Perth) in a rolling sea of red sand dunes topped with stunted malle tress and low desert grasses. Here we cross the Darling River. In 1859 this was one of Australia's busiest inland river ports, then called Perry Menindee. Beyond the town in the fading light of dusk we sit in the lounge car and watch as we pass the vast waters of the Menindee Lakes system. Once the lakes either filled to overflowing or completely dried out depending on the season. In the 1960's the Darling was dammed and diverted water from it into the lakes ensures they are now permanently full.

Dinner at 20.00 hrs, the 'Broken Hill to Lithgow', is followed by another time change announcement and we put our clocks forward half an hour as we change from Central Standard Time to Eastern Standard Time. After a short interlude in the lounge car its time to ensure our luggage is packed ready for our arrival in Sydney in the morning.

We pass through Conobolin (3,806 km from Perth) about 23.00 hrs and, as we rapidly approach into Monday, progress towards Parkes.


Monday 27 May 1996

Just after midnight and 3,906 km from Perth we stop at Parkes. Named after Sir Henry Parkes, a former Premier of New South Wales, the town is home to one of the great radio telescopes of the world. After an half hour stop here our journey continues.

Two and a half hours and one hundred and twenty five kilometres later we stop briefly at Orange, named after the Prince of Orange, later King of Holland. The landscape here is dominated by the peak of an extinct volcano, Mount Canobolas at 1,395 metre is the highest land feature between Perth and Sydney. Orange was significant as a gold mining town in the last century and occasional still reveals its past. On fathers day in 1979 two locals found a gold nugget valued then at AU$100,000. It is now surrounded by a huge wool growing region and is home to a processing plant which prepares the fleece for spinning. The famous Australian poet A. B. 'Banjo' Paterson, who also wrote 'Waltzing Matilda' was born near here.

During the night we pass through Bathurst (4,122 km from Perth), the oldest settlement west of the Great Dividing range and site of Australia's first gold find.

As Monday dawns we find ourselves at Lithgow, 4,196 km from Perth and only 156 km to Sydney. Here the Indian Pacific stops and usually changes engines from diesel to electric for the run over the Blue Mountains and into Sydney. Today we don't change engines and continue on under diesel power.

Before breakfast we sit in the lounge car and watch silently the sun rise over the Blue Mountains of the Great Dividing Range. In the valleys below the early morning mist hovers over the trees and lakes. About 06.45 hours we pass through a station called Bell, the highest point at 1,092 metres of the Indian Pacific railway, before reaching Mount Victoria.

We breakfast as we travel on through Katoomba, the Blue Mountains town where explorers Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson finally forged a way through the great mountain barrier.

About 08.15 hours we pass through Penrith, 4,296 km from Perth and only 56 km to Sydney. Crossing the Nepean River we enter the western suburbs of Sydney. Another thirty three kilometres and we pass through Parramatta. Lying at the head of the Parramatta River this is the site of the first Australian land grant, made to James Ruse. Here is also the site for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

At 09.20 hrs the great train draws slowly to a halt at its traditional terminus of Platform One at SydneyCentral Railway Terminal and so completes our journey from ocean to ocean, coast to coast across the vast Australian continent.


Acknowledgements

Much of the factual information on the timetable, places and distances has been derived from the complimentary publications aboard the Indian Pacific and other advertising brochures produced by Australian National.

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