Over 120 Years to Cross a Continent/Allure of the Outback

Today the modern city of Adelaide remains the afternoon departure point for The Ghan's continental crossing. Leaving behind suburbia, the twin locomotives and some 40 carriages wind their way through rolling wheat fields to Port Augusta, nearly 190 miles to the north. Here the scenery changes dramatically into a hostile landscape of sand, saltbrush, and scrub  that stretches the horizon.

Beyond Port Augusta, The Ghan travels on a new, all-weather track that lies up to 150 miles or so west of the old flood-prone line.  Night settles over the desert, and the passengers sleep as the train glides past salt lakes that are bone dry from much of the year but shimmer in the moonlight after rain.  Countless stars fill the clear night sky. Absent, however,  is the clickety-clack of yesteryear, for the rails are seamless,welded into one continuous length in order to reduce maintenance.

At dawn, the desert near Alice Sprints glows read and gold under the rising sun.  "The scene is awe-inspiring," said one passenger. "Even in the train I could sense the power of the sun. It burst over an endless, rolling desert landscape so broad, so colorful, so dreadful in its emptiness that it was overwhelming.  This is a humbling place."

From Outback to Tropics

Following an afternoon stopover in Alice Springs, The Ghan continues on to the town of Katherine and then to its northern terminus, tropical Darwin.  Cocooned inside air-conditioned carriages ,  "passengers on The Ghan enjoy luxury on wheels," says Larry Ierace, train manager.  Looking out their windows, they can only imagine the perils and hardships experience by the early pioneers. 

Besides fostering trade and providing one of the great railways journeys of the world, The Ghan has brought another serving of the modern world into the heart of the outback.  A 19-year-old Aboriginal girl who witnessed the train's inaugural journey in February 2004 said:  "I've never seen a train before in my life. It's beautiful." 

The Legend Behind the Name

The Ghan is an abbreviation for the nickname The Afghan Express.  How the train came to be named after the Afghan  camelmen is uncertain. Nevertheless, the designation calls to mind those hardy immigrants who helped open up the Australia outback. Collectively called Afghans, many in fact, came from such diverse places as Baluchistan, Egypt, Northern India, Pakistan Persia, and Turkey.

Their camels became the vehicles of the outback, obediently kneeling or rising to the command "Hooshta!" Camel trains of up to 70 beasts hauled people and freight at a steady pace of about 4 miles and hour.  When rail and road transport made camel trains obsolete, the Afghans turned their animals loose.   Today, the descendants of those camels-numbering into the hundreds of thousands-roam wild in central Australia.

Next time: Can Prisoners Be REFORMED? -Prisoners in Crisis

From the Awake! magazine