Ghan: A Town Called Alice

A good night’s rest on The Ghan. A good breakfast. And we were ready for our tour of Alice Springs, the second stop of this train journey.

Disembarking at the platform, we had a long walk to the buses … one that took us by the memorial to The Ghan. The plaque explained that work on the planned 1,800-mile rail line began in 1878. At first, the line that started in Port Augusta in the south didn’t make it further than Oodnatta … less than 500 miles to the north. From here, camel trains ferried passengers and freight some 450 miles to and from Alice Springs until the “mechanical train” finally reached Alice in 1929. Thus the train was given the moniker of The Ghan to honor the camel train and the Afghans who ran it. It wasn’t until 2004 that the entire length of the railway was completed.

The first stop of the tour was at the “School of the Air,” which was established in 1951. It is the largest of its kind, providing educational services to remote areas covering over half a million square miles. It was the first school to use two-way radio broadcasts with pedal transmitters and receivers. Today those services continue with more modern methods — internet via satellite being the most common — but student materials are still shipped via mail.

Our next stop was at Yubu Napa, an art gallery of Aboriginal and Australian made works, a gift shop, and a studio. One of the Aboriginal artists was painting in the studio and a representative of the gallery stood by to answer questions about the artists, how they create their works, and the inherent symbolism. Photos were allowed of the works, but not of the artist who was in the studio today.

From the gallery, we went a little ways out of town to the Alice Springs Desert Park, which was to be our lunch stop. A buffet lunch was set up … catered by the chefs of The Ghan. Mui and I hurried through our meal so that we could go for a quick wander to see some of the animals. The timing was wrong unfortunately. The mid-day heat had the animals hiding. The only one we saw was an Emu that was patrolling the fence … perhaps waiting for its mid-day feeding.

The Alice Springs Reptile Center was next on the agenda. Our visit started with an informative presentation about the venomous snakes of Australia. The presenter was of a humorous bent, making the presentation more interesting. He actually made us more comfortable about snakes around here by showing us how tiny the fangs are. So, as long as we wear long pants and solid footwear, and we remain on trails, we should have no adverse encounters.

Following the presentation, we went into a room with glass cases housing many of the snake species. I admit, I skipped these and went to the outdoor exhibits to see the other reptiles — skinks, frilled-neck lizards, goannas, perenties, bearded dragons, and thorny devils — and the one resident crocodile.

A short ride through Alice Springs gave us a look at the town. Then we went up to ANZAC Hill for an aerial view of the town before we were returned to the train station for a little bit of downtime before our evening event.Read more