One of Australia’s epic train journeys is now even more remarkable
From Coober Pedy we’d been flying for 45 minutes when the Painted Hills appear below as a gelato of milk chocolate twirled with a blush of berry and grape. As we drop lower, swirls of caramel and vanilla become dried river beds, streaks of mint morph into Seuss-like trees and butterscotch plateaus split into buttes and mesas. Never has the Australian outback felt so alien.
Stepping from the cocoon of our eight-seater GA-8 Airvan, we take our first steps across the chalky, yet spongy surface, our eyes adjusting to the intensity of colours. I doubt Armstrong or Aldrin felt greater wonder than our wide-eyed group of six on an off-train excursion from the Ghan.
Flying over the Painted Hills, an optional side trip during the Ghan’s journey from Darwin to Adelaide.
With no road access and hidden within the Anna Creek station, the largest – bigger-than-Belgium – cattle station in the world, this rocky outcrop was “discovered” less than 20 years ago. While scenic flyovers have been operating for some time, we are among the fortunate few to put boots on the ground here.
“The hills are made of sediments that were deposited in a vast ancient inland sea,” our pilot and guide Ben Cross explains, stopping to point out the difference between drops stones, which fell from icebergs and volcanic porphyry from the Gawler Ranges.
From 2023, the Painted Hills flight and tour, an optional upgrade on the four-day, three-night “Ghan Expedition” from Darwin to Adelaide, joins other new and innovative off-train experiences. And that, in a nutshell, is how one of the world’s greatest railway journeys continues to stay full steam ahead.
“Our off-train experiences are a big part of the guest experience,” says David Donald, executive manager of Rail for Journey Beyond. “Our rail journeys are about more than the spectacular landscapes and on-train camaraderie. They are also designed to connect guests with the country, themselves and each other. We’re delighted with the new experiences we’ve introduced for guests on The Ghan.”
The Ghan passing through the Flinders Ranges.
The Ghan railway divides Australia down the middle like a zipper, the 2979-kilometre journey opening up parts of the country in a way that no other holiday can replicate. At almost a kilometre in length, with its jaunty red locomotives and an average speed of just 85 kilometres an hour, the Ghan is the pin-up for slow travel.
The very name conjures romance. Originally dubbed the Afghan Express, the train was named for the pioneering Afghan cameleers who arrived in Australia in the 19th century. Decades in the planning, the Ghan made its inaugural journey from Adelaide to Stuart (later Alice Springs) on August 4, 1929, following the route of explorer John McDouall Stuart.
Legends abound, about the notoriously unreliable “Old Ghan”, which originally travelled via the flood-prone regions around Quorn; from being stopped in its tracks by sand dunes to the time it was stranded for two weeks, and the engine driver had to shoot wild goats to feed the hungry passengers.
No such dramas for the passengers of today, who can now choose between two or three-night transcontinental journeys, all inclusive of fine meals, wines, beverages and off-train excursions. Since the opening in 2004 of the much-anticipated leg between Alice Springs and Darwin, the Ghan has continued to evolve by expanding its onboard and off-train experiences, adding curated holiday packages and more recently, a combination of train-cruise adventures.
Next year (2024) will be the big hooray for the Ghan’s 20-year, transcontinental anniversary, and I’m eager to see what plans are underway to make one of the world’s most epic railway adventures even more remarkable.
A Gold twin cabin made up for the night.
One change, which is likely to bring about an increase in the number of American tourists visiting, is the recent acquisition of the Adelaide-based Journey Beyond - which operates the Ghan, along with its sister trains the Indian Pacific and Great Southern – by US firm Hornblower Group.
As we glide out of steamy Darwin, the mangroves and fruit plantations give way to red earth and silver saltbush, my cabin window now a movie reel showing an endlessly evolving landscape. I’m torn between settling into my cubby-house on wheels or having an early lunch in the Queen Adelaide Restaurant (I’ve heard there’s a good massaman-style buffalo curry, but alas, no wild goat). With four hours until our first stop in Katherine, I manage both.
I’m in a Gold twin cabin, compact, but with all the smarts to switch from a three-seater lounge by day to a comfortable bunk bed by night, a miracle that happens each evening while I’m at dinner. A private en-suite is small yet functional.
The Queen Adelaide Restaurant on board.
If size and luxury matter, Platinum cabins offer a double bed, larger en-suite and windows, and an array of premium extras.
Journey Beyond is investing $10 million over the next five years into the interior design of Gold cabins on the Ghan, Indian Pacific and Great Southern. The new look will be rolled out in stages, with the first expected to be under way by the end of 2023. Along with Gold Class cabins, the Outback Explorer Lounges and Queen Adelaide Restaurant will also be given a spruce up.
While details matter, the most heart-stirring highlights occur off the train. In Katherine, while some set off to cruise the waters of beautiful Nitmiluk Gorge, I choose to explore the Cutta Cutta caves complex, another one of the new experiences available on southbound departures.
However, a minor “geological event” intervened, cancelling the tour and sending me off on the Katherine Outback Experience. Here, I find myself grinning like a loon as Golden Guitar award winner Tom Curtain alternates between playing a guitar while riding a horse and using his working dogs to round up a goat, which then leaps like a lemming onto the back of another trick pony. The only thing missing was for the rather rakish bearded goat to start playing air guitar.
Meals are designed to reflect the landscape they are travelling through.
Back on the train, the Queen Adelaide Restaurant is the hero of the show, where three-course meals such as crocodile dumplings, grilled saltwater barramundi and lychee and berry mousse with Davidson plum coulis are designed to connect guests with the landscape they are travelling through. Breakfasts are equally delicious, with star billing going to eggs baked in tomato served with spinach, sauteed mushrooms, saltbush and anise-myrtle sour cream.
I chat with chef Drew Cornellius, who explains that while menus are refreshed and tweaked every six months, there’s a major refresh, including the addition of 10 new dishes, coming up this year. Revamping menus and making changes also involves keeping food waste to a minimum, with Journey Beyond working with OzHarvest in Adelaide to provide rescued (surplus) food which is delivered to people in need.
The Outback Explorer lounge is my favourite place on the train, where conversation and camaraderie flow as freely as the drinks. A Baileys over ice become my regular night-cap, to be carried back to my cabin and sipped slowly as I lay in bed watching the night sky slip by.
Alice Springs presents a garden of choices – a city tour, a walk through Simpson Gap, a flight to Uluru (optional upgrade). Sticking with my theme I select another one of the new tours, the Standley Chasm-Angkerle Atwatye Cultural Walk with an Indigenous Western Arrernte guide. With the private reserve back in the hands of the Iwupataka Land Trust, it is uplifting to see Journey Beyond supporting this 100 per cent Indigenous-owned tourism enterprise.
As dusk falls, we reunite at the restored 19th-century Old Telegraph Station for a gala outback barbecue dinner, which begins with camel rides and ends with guests hitting a dusty dance floor to a country music duo called Heartbeat. The final song – On the Ghan Again – sung to the popular Willie Nelson tune, is an ear-worm I will never recover from.
Our day in Cooper Pedy, which, alongside our much-anticipated excursions, included keeping an eye out for stray celebs from Fox’s Stars on Mars reality TV show that’s being filmed here, ends with drinks and canapes around a bonfire at the lonely Manguri siding.
Adelaide is another night and 800 or so kilometres away, but as others rush back to the train for dinner I linger, happy to enjoy the shifting light show. The Ghan may continue to evolve, but the one constant is its ability to bring passengers close to the authentic – often whacky, always wonderful - heart of this wild and dramatic landscape.
THE DETAILS
FLY
Qantas operates regular services to Darwin from Sydney and Melbourne and other capitals. See qantas.com
TOUR
The four-day/three-night Ghan Expedition, from Darwin to Adelaide is operated by Journey Beyond and runs from April to October. Prices for 2024 start from $4245 a person for Gold Twin cabins and $3705 for Gold Single inclusive of all meals, wines, beverages and most off-train experiences. See journeybeyondrail.com.au
The writer travelled as a guest of Journey Beyond.
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