All aboard outback express

GO AUSTRALIA:Not much has changed in the outback between Perth and Adelaide since early explorers crossed the plains, and while you don't have to endure the hardships they did, you can share their spirit of discovery on the Indian Pacific express, writes RACHEL COLLINS

APPROACHING Perth railway station, I have no idea of what lies ahead – except that it involves one of the longest train journeys in the world; the 4,352km-long route followed by the Indian Pacific runs all the way to Sydney. The full journey takes three days and three nights, with only a few stops along the way as it crosses an entire continent.

I’m starting my journey across the outback at the very beginning, in Perth, the capital of Western Australia, a city that is gobbling up as much of the surrounding wilderness as it can. And quickly. With a skyline eerily reminiscent of Dublin a decade ago, there are cranes and building sites all over the city centre.

Western Australia is booming – fuelled mostly by mines producing the gold and other valuable minerals that first lured the early settlers west. While convicts were the ones to build the city of Perth, it was the gold rushes of the late 19th century in nearby Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie that attracted thousands of hardy souls to cross the inhospitable Nullarbor Plain in search of adventure and riches. Today, the city may still be remote, even by Australian standards, but it continues to draw people from all over the world – including many Irish – who come seeking their fortunes, just as the early adventurers did.

I realise previous train journeys have done little to prepare me; they have either been short (does the Dart count?) or squalid (apologies Indian Railways, but we both know this is true).

It would be nice to think I’ll be getting a sense of how the early explorers felt as they made their way across the continent, into the unknown, discovering new lands, braving the elements, man versus nature . . . and then I see my train. A huge silver gleaming thing, measuring more than 600 metres in length. I’m staying in a cabin, I’m told. A “gold service” en suite cabin. With air con. And a dining car. And a turn down service that will miraculously transform my daytime seating into a comfy bed while I’m off eating my three-course dinner. And would I like a glass of champagne to welcome me aboard?

This exploring lark is a cinch – I’ve no idea what Crean and Shackleton were complaining about.

I’m travelling to Adelaide in South Australia, which will take two days instead of the full three required to reach Sydney. Even still, I am unsure how I’ll fill my time. Won’t I get bored? What can you discover while sitting in a train? Will my legs get jittery from sitting around? Will my bum get numb? There’s no time for questions though, as a friendly member of staff leads me to my cabin; a compact room which houses a large leather couch, small table, en suite bathroom (with the strangest “fold-up” toilet and sink I’ve ever seen) and an enormous window. This window, it turns out, is the answer to my earlier questions.

Magazines on the table explain the history of the railway – the pioneers who cleared the way for it to wind its way slowly, slowly across the plains in a process that took nearly a century. Water pipes and droughts were issues of life and death. No turndown service for them – they had picks and shovels and a few camels.

There are maps showing the routes Australia’s early explorers took to discover this vast continent. Again, these trips took years – many ending in mutiny, starvation, lack of water, death. I’m comforted to see two bottles of water on the table and realise that jittery legs aren’t all that bad.

As we make our way out of the station, I start exploring my little cabin; marvelling at the tricks used to make a small space seem bigger – hidden hooks and shelves and clever nooks and crannies. But time and again, I find myself returning to the window. I try to read a book; useless. I consider a nap to ward off my jetlag; pointless. Even the necessary task of learning to negotiate the bizarre en suite – both sink and toilet fold down to be used, then back up into the wall once you’re finished – can’t prise me away from the view.

Onwards we move, climbing up to the winding Avon Valley and into the openness of the wheat belt. It’s time for lunch, the first of many excellent meals I’m to have onboard. There are salads, fillets of beef, Tasmanian salmon; there are soups, cheese plates, desserts. There is also a decent wine list, with a focus on Australian favourites from regions such as Margaret River and McClaren Vale. We won’t be starving on this expedition.

Each meal is served in two sittings, to allow for the fact the chefs are working in tiny kitchens – not that you’d know it by the standard of the food. Almost everything is prepared freshly on the train, an incredible feat.

Mealtimes are an important part of the Indian Pacific experience as it’s when the passengers get a chance to mingle. I notice before we start our journey that the majority are beyond retirement age. It turns out most of those onboard are Australians who finally have the time to explore their own country – we might all be doing it in comfort and style, but discovery is still high on the agenda.

I return to my window. My energetic self, the one who talks a lot and insists on stupidly dangerous adventure sports, says I must be bored by now, just sitting, looking out a window. I tell her to be quiet – I’m busy.

There follows a gentle, mesmerising two days of astonishingly beautiful sunsets and sunrises; miles and miles of ever-changing mallee scrub and sands; there are rolling hills and then wide, stretching flats. The horizon goes on forever.

The Indian Pacific offers guided “whistle-stop tours” at the four stops between Perth and Sydney. On the first evening, we make a three-hour stop at Kalgoorlie, a mining city almost 600km east of Perth. A bus collects us from the station and brings us towards the “Super Pit”, Australia’s largest open-cut goldmine. The idea that a mine would be a tourist attraction might seem strange – but the mine is everything to this place. In fact, it was a chance discovery of gold by Irishman Paddy Hannon in 1893 that led to the foundation of Kalgoorlie.

It’s a rough and ready sort of place, our guide delights in telling us about the previous evening’s arrests at the local pub, and he points out the legal brothels which give guided tours – if that’s your sort of thing. Instead, we headed straight for the Super Pit, which is enormous (you could fit Uluru into it with room to spare, we are assured). Regardless of what direction you’re travelling in on the Indian Pacific, you will always stop at Kalgoorlie at night. No matter though, as the mine operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

While I find the mine itself slightly disturbing, so great an impact is it having on the landscape, the overlooking visitor centre gives a fascinating insight into how the gold rushes and mines shaped the city, the state and even the railway line we are travelling on. You get a real sense of the hardships faced by the city’s forbears, and an appreciation of how their legacy lives on in the people who inhabit the outback.

BACK ONBOARD IT’S time for bed – the train fairies have transformed my couch into a comfortable bed, complete with crisp white bedlinen. Lights out and I’m rocked to sleep by the sound of the train moving along the tracks.

I wake up at dawn to see I’ve been delivered into the ancient Nullarbor Plain. It’s a vast, inhospitable place – red sand as far as the eye can see, little or no foliage, apart from scraps of sad-looking low saltbush and blue bush scrub. The name Nullarbor means “no trees”. No kidding.

Crossing the Nullarbor is a rite of passage for many Australians. A Dutch girl on board tells me she’s come here just to see it, having heard stories from Australian friends.

Historically, the only people to use the Nullarbor were the semi-nomadic Spinifex Wangai Aboriginals. The British carried out nuclear testing here in the 1950s; Edward John Eyre, the first European to cross the continent from east to west called it “a hideous anomaly, a blot on the face of Nature, the sort of place one gets into in bad dreams”. You get the idea.

Apparently you can sometimes get lucky and see a camel, kangaroo or a dingo. We weren’t lucky. Nor were the people of Cook, our next stop on the journey. The railways gave life to Cook in 1917 and then took it away again 80 years later when the trains were privatised and the new owners no longer had a need for the town.

Almost overnight, it became a ghost town. Today, just four inhabitants occupy a once-thriving desert stop-off that was home to more than 300 people. Tourists on the Indian Pacific come to look around, train drivers stop here to sleep – but the hospital, swimming pool, school, golf course, the houses all lie abandoned and unused.

As we leave Cook I think about the four remaining inhabitants. A tiny gift shop is all they have to keep them going, their only water delivered by the trains. The nearest town is five hours’ drive away. I’m not sure there’s a better example of stubborn Australian perseverance than this.

That’s the magic of discovering this part of Australia – not much has changed since the early explorers crossed the plains, and while you don’t have to endure the hardships they did, their spirit of discovery lives on.

As I wake on my final morning, we’re pulling into Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. Suddenly outside my window there are trees and buildings, roads and cars. People! It all seems at odds with the journey we’ve made. Perth feels as if it is a million miles away – and once upon a time, for people like Edward John Eyre, it was.

Rachel Collins was a guest of Australia.com, Great Southern Rail and Qantas

Indian Pacific where to...

Stay

The Richardson, 32 Richardson Street, Perth. Tel: 00-618-92178888 or see therichardson.com.au. The perfect place to acclimatise before you begin your journey east on the Indian Pacific. This boutique hotel has 74 spacious guestrooms and suites. The restaurant offers an interesting menu and an impressive array of wines. Its award-winning spa offers the usual selection of treatments, the stand-out being a wrap to banish jetlag.

There are three classes of seat on the train. Red Service is a great budget option and further reductions are available for students and backpackers. It offers large reclining seats – think business class on a plane – with a cafe and shared bathrooms. There are also a number of basic sleeper cabins. Perth-Adelaide, from AUD $485 (€361); Perth-Sydney, from AUD $755 (€562).

Gold class has single and twin berth sleeper cabins, most en suite. All meals are included in the Queen Adelaide dining car and guests have access to the Outback Explorer Lounge. Perth-Adelaide, from AUD $1,570 (€1,169); Perth-Sydney, from AUD $2,080 (€1,549).

Platinum class offers serious luxury with large private cabins with full en suite bathrooms, lounge-style furniture (which turn into full-sized twin or double beds) and panoramic windows. Perth-Adelaide, from AUD $2,409 (€1,794); Perth-Sydney, from AUD $3,468 (€2,582).

What to bring

You can check your suitcase in for the journey, but only hand luggage and a garment bag are allowed on board. You won’t have access to your checked luggage for the duration of your trip, so be sure to bring all you need.

Ear plugs: if you don’t find the clickety-clack of the train soothing, you’ll need these to get a good night’s sleep.

A camera: so you can bring some of those views home with you.

A good book: once the sun goes down, take the time to learn a little of the land you’re travelling through. It really adds to the experience. The Explorers: Stories of Discovery and Adventure from the Australian Frontier by Tim Flannery (Grove Press) or The Dig Tree: The Extraordinary Story of the Ill-fated Burke and Wills, by Sarah Murgatroyd (Bloomsbury).

Who to talk to

Everyone! The friendly staff have a wide-ranging knowledge of the landscapes you’re travelling through and the history of the towns and railways. Also, I found the Australians on board have a wealth of stories – many involving prospecting grandparents/

great-grandparents and early settlers.

Websites

greatsouthernrail.com.au

australia.com

Get there

Return flights with Qantas from Dublin to Australia start from €895 (Perth). This offer ends on June 1st and is valid for travel from now till June 20th. See qantas.com.