The Ghan
Encyclopedia
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The Ghan is a passenger train
Train
A train is a connected series of vehicles for rail transport that move along a track to transport cargo or passengers from one place to another place. The track usually consists of two rails, but might also be a monorail or maglev guideway.Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate...
operating between Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, Alice Springs
Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Alice Springs is the second largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Popularly known as "the Alice" or simply "Alice", Alice Springs is situated in the geographic centre of Australia near the southern border of the Northern Territory...
, and Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...
on the Adelaide-Darwin railway
Adelaide-Darwin railway
The Adelaide–Darwin railway is a north-south transcontinental railway in Australia, between the cities of Adelaide, South Australia and Darwin, Northern Territory...
in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Operated by Great Southern Railway
Great Southern Railway (Australia)
Great Southern Railway , owned by Serco Asia Pacific, is a tourism business and rail transport operator in Australia.GSR operates interstate passenger trains aimed at the tourist market:* The Indian Pacific...
and with locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
s provided by Pacific National
Pacific National
Pacific National is one of Australia's largest private rail freight businesses. Originally a joint venture between Patrick Corporation and Toll Holdings; it is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Asciano Limited following the restructure of Toll Holdings....
, the entire journey takes 48 hours to travel the 2979 kilometres (1,851.1 mi) and around half that (24 hours) to the mid-point at Alice Springs.
Etymology
The service's name is an abbreviated version of its previous nicknameNickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
The Afghan Express, unofficially bestowed on the "express passenger" service of the Commonwealth Railways
Commonwealth Railways
The Commonwealth Railways were established in 1912, as part of a government department, currently called the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, by the Government of Australia to construct the missing link in the east-west transcontinental railway and...
in 1923, by one of its crews. The train's name honours Afghan camel drivers
Afghan (Australia)
The Afghans or Ghans were camel drivers who worked in outback Australia from the 1860s to the 1930s. While called Afghans, not all of them were from Afghanistan; some came from the northern regions of British India, areas that now constitute modern-day Pakistan...
who arrived in Australia in the late 19th century to help find a way to reach the country's unexplored interior.
Operations
The Ghan normally runs twice-weekly from Adelaide through to Darwin. The current world financial crisis has reduced the frequency to one service a week during the low season (November to March).In addition to Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin, the train also makes a stop at Katherine. The stops at Katherine and Alice Springs allow time for optional tours. The average length of the train is 686 metres, but trains up to 49 carriages long (1.2 kilometres in length) have been run. The Ghan is operated by Great Southern Railway Ltd
Great Southern Railway (Australia)
Great Southern Railway , owned by Serco Asia Pacific, is a tourism business and rail transport operator in Australia.GSR operates interstate passenger trains aimed at the tourist market:* The Indian Pacific...
, part of the Serco Group
Serco Group
Serco Group plc is a government services company based in Hook, North Hampshire in the United Kingdom. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:...
.
History
The railway line used by "The Ghan" was originally built as a 1087 mm (3 feet 6 inches) narrow gauge railway as far north as Alice Springs. In 1980 this line was completely replaced by a new 1435 mm (4 feet 8½ inches) standard gaugeStandard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
built to the west of the original line. This new line was extended northwards from Alice Springs to Darwin in 2004.
Original Ghan
Construction of what was then known as the Port Augusta to Government Gums Railway began in 1878 when Premier of South Australia Sir William JervoisWilliam Jervois
Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois, GCMG, CB was a British military engineer who saw service, as Second Captain, in South Africa...
broke ground at Port Augusta. The line reached Hawker
Hawker, South Australia
Hawker is a town in the Flinders Ranges area of South Australia, 365 km north of Adelaide. It is in the Flinders Ranges Council, the state Electoral district of Stuart and the federal Division of Grey. At the 2006 census, Hawker had a population of 229....
in June 1880, Beltana
Beltana, South Australia
Beltana is a semi-ghost town north of Adelaide, South Australia. Beltana is known for continuing to exist long after the reasons for its existence had ceased...
in July 1881, Marree
Marree, South Australia
Marree is a small town located in the north of South Australia. It lies North of Adelaide at the junction of the Oodnadatta Track and the Birdsville Track, above sea level. The area is the home of the Dieri people. At the 2006 census, Marree had a population of 70.The town was home to Australia's...
in January 1884 and Oodnadatta
Oodnadatta, South Australia
Oodnadatta, South Australia, is a small town surrounded by an area of with cattle stations in arid pastoral rangelands close to the Simpson Desert, north of Adelaide and 112 m above sea level. It can be reached by an unsealed road from Coober Pedy or via the unsealed Oodnadatta Track from...
on 7 January 1891. It wasn't until 1926 that development to Alice Springs began, and that section was completed in 1929. Until then, final leg of the train journey was still made by camel.
While there were plans from the beginning to extend the line through to Darwin, by the time the Alice Springs connection was complete, the Ghan was running at a financial loss, and plans for connection to Darwin were put on indefinite hold. The original Ghan line followed the same track as the overland telegraph
Australian Overland Telegraph Line
The Australian Overland Telegraph Line was a 3200 km telegraph line that connected Darwin with Port Augusta in South Australia. Completed in 1872 the Overland Telegraph Line allowed fast communication between Australia and the rest of the world. An additional section was added in 1877 with the...
, which is believed to be the route taken by John McDouall Stuart
John McDouall Stuart
John McDouall Stuart was one of the most accomplished and famous of all Australia's inland explorers. Stuart led the first successful expedition to traverse the Australian mainland from south to north and return, and the first to do so from a starting point in South Australia, achieving this...
during his 1862 crossing of Australia.
The original Ghan was notorious for washouts and other delays on the line, and the flatcar immediately behind the tender carried spare sleepers and railway tools, so that if a washout was encountered the passengers and crew could work as a railway gang to repair the line and permit the train to continue. This appalling service was tolerated because steam trains needed water, and Stuart's route to Alice Springs was the only one that had available water.
During World War 2 the service was greatly expanded, putting pressure on the limited water supplies. As a result, de-mineralisation towers were built along the track so that bore water could be used, and some survive to this day. When steam was replaced by diesel, there was no need for water, and the line was re-routed to the waterless (but more reliable) route from Tarcoola to Alice Springs.
The original Ghan featured in an episode of BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Television's series Great Railway Journeys of the World in 1980, presented by Michael Frayn
Michael Frayn
Michael J. Frayn is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce Noises Off and the dramas Copenhagen and Democracy...
.
New line
The original Ghan ran for the last time in 1980 and now its preservation is in the hands of The Ghan Preservation Society, which repairs sections of the old narrow gauge track and some notable sidings. It was not until October 1980 that a new standard gaugeStandard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
line from Tarcoola, South Australia
Tarcoola, South Australia
Tarcoola is a town in the Far North of South Australia 416 km north-northwest of Port Augusta.Tarcoola is taken from a non-local aboriginal language from an area around Tarcoola Station in NSW; it means river bend.-History:Tarcoola Post Office opened on 18 August 1900 and the town was...
(a siding on the Trans-Australian Railway
Trans-Australian Railway
The Trans-Australian Railway crosses the Nullarbor Plain of Australia from Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia...
) to Alice Springs
Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Alice Springs is the second largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Popularly known as "the Alice" or simply "Alice", Alice Springs is situated in the geographic centre of Australia near the southern border of the Northern Territory...
was constructed, and the train took the form it has today. The new line is located approximately 160 kilometres (99.4 mi) west of the former line, in an effort to prevent washout due to rain. It was also hoped that the construction of the new line would improve the on-time performance of the train.
Connection to Darwin
Construction of Alice Springs–Darwin line was believed to be the second-largest civil engineering project in Australia, and the largest in the 50 years since the creation of the Snowy Mountains SchemeSnowy Mountains Scheme
The Snowy Mountains scheme is a hydroelectricity and irrigation complex in south-east Australia. It consists of sixteen major dams; seven power stations; a pumping station; and 225 kilometres of tunnels, pipelines and aqueducts and was constructed between 1949 and 1974. The Chief engineer was Sir...
(built 1949–1974).
Line construction began in July 2001, with the first passenger train reaching Darwin on February 4, 2004, after 126 years of planning and waiting and at a cost of A$
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
1.3 billion.
The Ghan's arrival in Darwin signified a new era of tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
in the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
, making travel to the region easier and more convenient as well as providing better access to and for Aboriginal communities in the region. The rail link will allow for more freight to travel through the region, leading to a hope that Darwin will serve as another trade link with Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
.
In preparation for the connection to Darwin, one of the locomotives was named for Steve Irwin
Steve Irwin
Stephen Robert "Steve" Irwin , nicknamed "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian television personality, wildlife expert, and conservationist. Irwin achieved worldwide fame from the television series The Crocodile Hunter, an internationally broadcast wildlife documentary series which he co-hosted...
in a hope that the internationally-recognized face of Australia would help promote the new service and tourism to the region.
Incidents
- On 24 October 2002, the Ghan collided with a school bus in SalisburySalisbury, South AustraliaSalisbury is a northern suburb in Adelaide, South Australia. It is the seat of the City of Salisbury, and in the South Australian Legislative Assembly electoral district of Ramsay and the Australian House of Representatives divisions of Wakefield and Port Adelaide...
in South AustraliaSouth AustraliaSouth Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
. Four people on the bus were killed, but there was no significant injuries to the Ghan passengers. - On 12 December 2006, the Ghan collided with a truckRoad trainA road train or roadtrain is a trucking concept used in remote areas of Argentina, Australia, Mexico, the United States and Canada to move freight efficiently. The term "road train" is most often used in Australia. In the U.S. and Canada the terms "triples," "turnpike doubles" and "Rocky Mountain...
at a level crossing and derailed 35 km south of Adelaide RiverAdelaide River, Northern TerritoryAdelaide River is a town where the Stuart Highway crosses the Adelaide River in the Northern Territory of Australia, upstream of the Adelaide and Mary River Floodplains Important Bird Area. At the 2006 census, Adelaide River had a population of 190...
in the Northern TerritoryNorthern TerritoryThe Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
. Seven of the 11 carriages came off the tracks. One woman was critically injured, other passengers received only minor injuries. The truck driver involved was arrested, according to the NT police, charged and found guilty of a number of charges related to the accident. - On 4 March 2007, rains washed out a portion of the track between Darwin and Adelaide River. During the time that it took to repair the track, all trains terminated in KatherineKatherine, Northern TerritoryKatherine is a town situated southeast of Darwin in the "Top End" of Australia in the Northern Territory. It is the fourth largest settlement in the Territory after the capital Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs...
. - On 6 August 2007, the Ghan collided with a truckRoad trainA road train or roadtrain is a trucking concept used in remote areas of Argentina, Australia, Mexico, the United States and Canada to move freight efficiently. The term "road train" is most often used in Australia. In the U.S. and Canada the terms "triples," "turnpike doubles" and "Rocky Mountain...
at a level crossing 50 km (31.1 mi) north of AdelaideAdelaideAdelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
in South Australia. Three passengers were reported with minor injuries, suffering from shock. The truck driver was temporarily trapped in his vehicle. - On 6 June 2009, a nineteen-year-old American tourist clung to the outside of the Ghan for two hours and 200 km when, after returning to the train after a stop in Port AugustaPort Augusta, South Australia-Electricity generation:Electricity is generated at the Playford B and Northern power stations from brown coal mined at Leigh Creek, 250 km to the north...
, he found himself locked out with his passport and luggage inside the train. He was only rescued when engineer Marty Wells heard his screams and stopped the train.
External links
- The Ghan homepage
- The Ghan ephemera digitised and held by the National Library of AustraliaNational Library of AustraliaThe National Library of Australia is the largest reference library of Australia, responsible under the terms of the National Library Act for "maintaining and developing a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the...