Indian Pacific

This is the train trip that spans Australia. The Indian Pacific travels 4352km via Adelaide, providing 3 nights on board the train. It is one of the world’s longest and greatest train journeys. Before we boarded this train we wanted to do something different, something special to say good bye to the West. We opted for a visit to the Indiana Tea House.

Indiana Tea House

The evening before we were to leave Western Australia we went to watch the sun set over the Indian Ocean from the Indiana Tea House. Every tourist should end their trip with this experience. Remember, east coast Australians such as us can only watch the sun rise over the Pacific Ocean, so this was quite a change. Click here to find out the details about this wonderful place. Apart from the ocean views, probably the highlight of this tea house (which serves alcohol) is that it was built entirely from recycled timbers, etc. The following two photos are from the Indiana Tea House site.

The sun setting over the Indian Ocean. View of the Indiana Tea House

Back to the Indian Pacific Train Trip

Following is a photo of the train and a map showing the route of the Indian Pacific across Australia.

As the name implies, the Indian Pacific connects two oceans on one of the world’s longest and greatest train journeys. I had heard many differing views on the train trip - some said it was boring. I can assure you if you have eyes to see with you could not call it boring. There were many things to see along the way as we crossed this vast continent. When we left Perth we passed through the suburbs quickly and then hit the country side - seeing large areas of land covered with wildflowers and a large variety of wildflowers sprinkled under the trees, but most surprising was that for over five hours we followed the Avon river gorge and valley and were taken through very rich country side full of olive groves, vineyards, various other crops and cattle and sheep. It was a pleasure to watch.

In the early evening we arrived at Kalgoorlie and were offered a night tour of the town. This was my first night tour of a town that I had never visited - what would I see? Surprising quite a bit! The main buildings were well lit showing that the town had been very prosperous when built and obviously still prosperous as they were all in an excellent state of repair. The most amazing site though was the open cut gold mine which we were taken to see - yes it was lit up and operating - it operates 24 hours per day. It was terraced, very deep and covered a massive area. They were just cutting away the land and the environment will be left as is because there was no agreement about returning the land to its original state.

We ate well, socialised well and slept well the first night.

Next morning we were crossing the Nullarbor Plain - flat, but not dead, tufted grass and saltbushes were growing on the bright red soil, and occasionally a splash of bright pink flowers. The train slowed down near Nurina, so we took this photo. It shows the desolation of the Nullarbor Plain. Later on stopped for water at Cook, a remote outpost on the Nullarbor Plain, we were able to alight from the train and this is where we took the above photo of the Indian Pacific. The symbol of the Indian Pacific is Australia's Wedge Tail Eagle, the biggest eagle on earth. This regal bird, is frequently seen by passengers, unfortunately we didn't manage to see the eagle, though we did see kangaroos and camels.

We had another wonderful evening meal and social chit chat before turning in for the second good night's sleep.

Adelaide was our next port of call. Arriving early in the morning we had a few hours which we could fill with a tour of Adelaide or a wander in the nearby park. Having only been in Adelaide recently we opted for a walk around the park.

Rich agricultural land surrounds Adelaide, so the area into and out of Adelaide made for pleasant viewing. Our next stop was Broken Hill. This time we took the tour of Broken Hill. My main impression was that Broken Hill was a town built around a mine. No matter where you looked you could see the mine.

Then started the worst part of the journey for us. The track from Broken Hill to Parkes I don't think has been touched since it was constructed. The train jerked and swung about so much that it was hard to eat dinner. Passengers from the earlier seating told us not to order the soup as we entered the dining carriage. This was good advice which we followed. But we forgot that coffee is also liquid. Most of my coffee ended in the saucer, luckily not on me. It was even worse at night when we tried to sleep, you would just nod off and then you would literally be jerked almost out of your bed. Thank heavens it was only the one night like this.

The trip took a better turn in the morning. Obviously we were onto track that had been cared for by the railway people. Lets hope they can get their act together and fix the track from Broken Hill east to Parkes.

The trip through the Blue Mountains was spectacular and I'm sure the bad night's sleep started to pass away from the overseas tourists who were on the train.

I recommend this trip but suggest Sydney to Perth so you are not in bed trying to sleep over the bad track section or suggest Perth to Adelaide then to Melbourne.