ACROSS SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA
ON THE INDIAN PACIFIC TRAIN
ON THE INDIAN PACIFIC TRAIN
June 2, 2018: I got on the Indian Pacific today for 4
days/3 nights all across southern Australia from Perth to Sydney. This great
journey starts on the railway platform with a selection of cakes for morning
tea while we wait to board. As Pippi Longstocking whispered in my compliant
ear, “Well, we might as well start things out wrong 😉!”
Some folks might think that
a journey of 4352 km (2725 Miles) on the world’s longest straight stretch of
railway track would be boring. But in addition to off-train excursions that are
part of the package... look at the wine list! All included, anything you want
with their incredible cuisine prepared 3 times a day on the Indian Pacific
train using locally-sourced produce from various stops on this transcontinental
Australian journey. Good job, Great Southern Rail! Also hats off to them for many of the
descriptions below, provided in their YOUR JOURNEY brochure…
OFF-TRAIN EXCURSION: KALGOORLIE-BOULDER
Located in the eastern
goldfields 375 Miles east of Perth, Kalgoorlie-Boulder has an interesting
history. In 1893, prospector Paddy Hannan discovered gold on the western
fringes of the Nullarbor Plain.
Within the week, 1400 hopeful prospectors thundered into town and the
incredible wealth they unearthed shaped the city of 31,000 residents to this
day, with many magnificent heritage buildings. Kalgoorlie-Boulder is
Australia’s largest Outback City, home to the staggering 2 1/4 mile wide Super
Pit, the world’s largest single open-cut gold mine, which has operated 24 hours
a day since 1989. Australia is the world’s second largest gold producer,
accounting for 9% of the world’s output.
OFF-TRAIN EXCURSION: RAWLINNA
Good morning, Rawlinna!
After the beautiful sunrise, it appears that not much goes on here, so you
kinda wonder what the population of 3 people, a dog, a horse and a house-sheep
that thinks it’s a dog, does for entertainment other than watching passengers
from the weekly Indian Pacific run who get out for a 6:30 a.m. leg stretch.
This is a popular
disembarkation point for jackaroos and jillaroos (cowboys and cowgirls) as this
railway siding lies next to Australia’s largest sheep station — the 2.5 million
acre Rawlinna Station. Established in 1962, the station today stocks more than
70,000 sheep, with the wool regularly sent to Adelaide for testing and sale.
Rawlinna is also the site of a small lime mine; the limestone extracted is
mostly used in the gold production process at Kalgoorlie.
OUTBACK POSTAL
SERVICE. The young woman
postmistress seems able to manage the Rawlinna postal duties all by herself.
Apparently the 70,000 sheep in the nearby paddock (ranches) don’t write many
letters. I wonder how their BaBa’s feel about that...
OFF-TRAIN EXCURSION: COOK
Sitting on the Nullarbor Plain, a hot and barren plateau twice the size
of England, Cook was established to support the Trans-Australian railway which
was completed in 1917. Named after a former Australian Prime Minister, Sir
Joseph Cook, this outpost was once a thriving Nullarbor town with around 200
residents, its own hospital, school, golf course and shops. With the
privatization of the Australian railways in 1997, the town was effectively
closed. The desert stretches as far as the eye can see in any direction. The
nearest major town is a five hour drive and the local doctor is a 12 hour drive
away. Cook has now got a permanent population of four and serves as a refueling
station for the Indian Pacific; Pippi enjoyed a chance to stretch her legs
despite the heat, dust, and black flies
SCENES FROM MY WINDOW: THE INDIAN PACIFIC, DAY
2.
As we cross into the
Nullarbor Plain, the scenery becomes monotonous— unless you look more closely.
Ghost towns, abandoned plane hangers, livestock loading platforms no longer
used; a dingo runs away from the rail siding, no doubt alerted to the train’s
approach a while ago by ground vibration; southern hairy-nosed wombats skitter
to their shelters; two Wedge Tail Eagles (the Indian Pacific’s emblem) ride the
hot thermals, looking for a hapless rodent; a brownish bird sits on a broken
and brittle fence post (is it a Nullarbor Quail or Naretha Bluebonnet bird?)
Hard to believe, but Aboriginal ancestors must have walked across these plains
on their way to caves on the south Australian coast, carved out from the
limestone by saltwater.
ABORIGINAL HISTORY NOTE on
the Nullarbor, courtesy anthropologist Shirley Campbell: “ At Allen’s Cave on
the Nullarbor, the ancestors of today’s Aboriginal population looked out
over these dry plains with a sweeping view of some 70 kilometers ... 40,000
years ago!” Allen’s Cave is among the oldest occupation sites in all of
Australia, with occupation continuing until the recent past. On the map below,
look near the coast, and you can see Eucla; although not noted on the map,
Allen’s Cave is 50 Miles west of Koonalda Cave. About 16,000 years ago, the sea
level fell and the Cave was abandoned for thousands of years as this region
became a treeless plain; most likely the people moved south to be closer to the
receded coastline. The sea rose again about 12,000 years ago and occupancy of
Allen’s Cave resumed.
OFF-TRAIN EXCURSION: BROKEN HILL
Broken Hill, New South Wales (NSW): Known as the Silver City, Broken
Hill is Australia’s longest-lived mining city, with extraction of silver, lead
and zinc. Apart from its tough exterior, there’s a well-known secret here: in
1994 the Australian film industry thrust Broken Hill onto the world stage when
it released the cult-classic drag queen movie, “The Adventures of Priscilla.
Queen of the Desert.” So of course Pippi Longstocking and I chose the
opportunity to see a Drag Queen performance at the Palace Hotel. Made us
homesick for San Francisco
SCENES FROM MY WINDOW: THE INDIAN PACIFIC, Day
3.
Lush vineyards and rows of
white-domed produce-growing greenhouses in the environs of Adelaide rapidly
give way to starker landscape with undulating hills. Windy hills, it seems,
with the wind turbines on top. From harvesting the wind to harvesting very
little else, towns along the rail tracks wither and rust; the newest paint is
on the “for sale” signs. The land gets barren of all but scrub, and I wonder at
the grain storage building in the middle of the scrub. A ragged Emu has no
apparent company, and cactus appears. A rare farmstead sports a motionless
windmill. Undulating red hills go on for miles. There’s an arroyo etched into
the ground every once in a while; when the wet season comes soon, everything
I’ve seen this afternoon will no doubt green up quickly. Temporarily. As the
sun sets, the dusky brush turns a sage green, providing a pointillist scheme
against the sandy red soil.
MARALINGA
At 5 in the afternoon on June 4, as the sun
was slanting its rays in the farewell descent over the Nullarbor Plain, the
Indian Pacific passed through Ooldea,
which is a few miles south of Maralinga (note the “Defense Reserve” on the
map).
Maralinga is where the British
in the early 1950’s conducted atomic bomb tests, affecting local Anangul
aboriginal people, plants and animals. The site has since become an enduring
symbol for the desecration and pollution of the land. It is also a powerful
example of the compulsory displacement of Aboriginal people from their
traditional land.
In the realistic treatment
of the mother and child sheltering from the bomb blast, the sculpture carries
an additional message about the human costs of all wars and instruments of war.
(Sculpture/notes in first floor exhibit, collection of the Art Gallery of
Western Australia, Perth)
OFF-TRAIN EXCURSION: ADELAIDE
Morning tea, 6:20 a.m. as the sun rises over the land north of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia (SA). Rows of winegrapes peek out from under the wispy but chilly morning fog.
Adelaide, capital of South
Australia, is the only city in the world entirely surrounded by parks — 760
hectares of parks (twice the area of New York’s Central Park). Their city
transportation system is excellent, and I particularly appreciated the street
cars painted with aboriginal designs. Another Adelaide amenity: a golf course
near the center of the city, located a short distance from the huge sports
stadium “the Oval”. The stadium overlooks a park that borders the sides of the
Torrens River.
This is a beautiful city
with lots of historic buildings preserved. Produce was a big business here and
still is. “Market gardens” are everywhere you look as the Indian Pacific rolls
through the outlying area’s. Less than a hour’s drive from the city are the
wine regions of the McLaren Vale, Adelaide Hills, and Barossa Valley.
SCENES FROM MY WINDOW: THE INDIAN PACIFIC, Day
4.
The train on Day 4 moved from
Adelaide to its final destination of Sydney, New South Wales (NSW). Towns now
dot themselves along the Indian Pacific’s path. Small houses and farming lands
predominate. Points of interest: Lithgow, a coal mining area that was dependent
on the railway for its growth in the 1860’s. Bathurst, home to an annual V8
supercars race. The town of Orange, known for its green pastures and
fruit-growing heritage.
OFF-TRAIN EXCURSION: BLUE MOUNTAINS.
The Blue Mountains are a
World Heritage Listed mountain range, 7200 feet high, considered an impassable
barrier until 1813.
On June 6, the Indian
Pacific excursion to the Blue Mountains allowed us a look at coal mining
activities (now ceased) and a chance to ride on the scenic railway, which at a
52 degree incline is the steepest passenger train in the world
.
The “Three Sisters“ rock
formation is sacred to the Aboriginal peoples of this area near Sydney. Those
are the Gundungarra and Darug peoples, and I thank them for allowing me to
visit their traditional lands. Here is the story told about this famous
formation in the Blue Mountains:
“Long
ago, a clever old man called Tyawan lived in these mountains. He had three
daughters - Meenhi, Wimlah and Gunnedoo. He also had a magic shinbone that
changed him into a lyrebird when he wished. When he went hunting, he would tell
his daughters to stay on the cliff top, safe from Bunyip, who lived deep in the
valley.
One day Meenhi knocked a rock over the cliff and it crashed into the valley, waking Bunyip, who charged up the cliff toward the terrified girls. Tyawan could not reach them in time and so he changed them into rocks. Then Bunyip chased Tyawan, who changed his shape many times before changing to a lyrebird. But he dropped his magic shinbone when his arms changed into wings. Ever since, lyrebird has scratched in the leaves, looking for the shinbone to change the girls back into human form.”
One day Meenhi knocked a rock over the cliff and it crashed into the valley, waking Bunyip, who charged up the cliff toward the terrified girls. Tyawan could not reach them in time and so he changed them into rocks. Then Bunyip chased Tyawan, who changed his shape many times before changing to a lyrebird. But he dropped his magic shinbone when his arms changed into wings. Ever since, lyrebird has scratched in the leaves, looking for the shinbone to change the girls back into human form.”
SYDNEY – end of the trip!
SYDNEY VIVID ~ Sydney,
Australia, the evening of June 6, is alive with spectacular light displays all
along their famous harbor... including moving rainbows of color on the famous
Harbor Bridge, and also on the many skyscrapers abutting the ferry terminals.
The once yearly event is called VIVID and
lasts for 22 nights. Beautiful!
WHALE WATCHING AFTERNOON. As
I sit in the inside cabin to get a little respite from the chilly afternoon
winds, I am surrounded by people throwing up into the thoughtfully provided
seasick bags. So it goes with whale watching off the coast of Sydney, where the
humpback whales three weeks ago started their northward migration from
Antarctica to their calving and breeding grounds in the Great Barrier Reef, and
will continue the migration until the end of July. The whale watching boats are
not allowed closer than 100 meters distance from a whale, once one has been
spotted, and 200 meters from a mother and calf (baby). However, “our“ humpback
whale did not know that, and playfully surfaced several times much nearer the
boat than that. The whale also did a complete breach out of the water, doing a
pirouette in the air about 50 feet away from the back of the boat. I guess that
sight, which I had never seen anywhere before, makes it worth all the people
gagging around me…
 |
| Courtesy Trip Advisor. I was too busy watching the breach to get a photo! |
SAYING “SO LONG” TO
AUSTRALIA... Pippi Longstocking and I hate to leave, but we’ll be back. We
LOVED our 31 day vacation here, going over, up, around, down and finally the
long way back to where we started in Sydney. It’s one of the best trips that
the Strongest Girl in the World and her travel companion have ever had. Tonight
we said farewell at the architecturally renowned Sydney Opera House and its own
fantastic light art display for the VIVID SYDNEY event
DID I MENTION THAT WE'LL BE BACK?
Yep, headed to Tasmania, Melbourne and Canberra in January 2019 (Goddess willing)
By the Way, if you missed
Part Three: Perth and Western Australia, click here
