GHAN RAILWAY LINE TOUR: Oodnadatta

Last year Postcards caught up with John Stillwell on one of the longest mail runs in the world - from Coober Pedy to William Creek - then onto Oodnadatta and back home. On this epic six hundred-kilometre journey you see plenty, and yet we barely touched on one of Australia's greatest engineering feats. So in this year of Federation festivities with their emphasis on nation building, what better time than to return to the Old Ghan Railway Line.

As Stillie follows the Oodnadatta Track, the reminders of the line are ever present as the railway builders spike their way across the interior, always within reach of that most precious commodity - water.

"They were obviously steam trains in those days, water was a very important part of the infrastructure".

Here the railway builders followed the punctures in the red earth where water bubbles up from the great artesian basin at places like Coward Springs. But it was a well worn path, having served as an aboriginal trade route for thousands of years, and later the path taken by the explorer John McDouall Stuart as he found a way from south to north across Australia.

"And the old telegraph line wet through here as well?"

"Yes it did. At the moment it's out to the right of us but yer, it's virtually on the same track as the Oodnadatta track".

There are times out here when it feels more like the Wild West than outback South Australia. This is Edwards Creek. The four chimneys are all that remain of the railway cottages which housed the workers and their families. The water tank is still a reminder of the days when steam engines pulled their loads through a town once called Dodge City by the locals because of its less than civilised reputation. Sidings like these sprang up as the old line made its way, by increments, into the nation's heart. But if you thought it was all harsh and inhospitable desert out here, then think again. The Algebuckina waterhole, fed in part by the Neales River and an underground spring, provided the ideal water supply for those who built one of the most impressive examples of nineteenth century engineering in Australia.

"It's not until you take the time to venture out into a remote place like this that you begin to realise just how big this country is and how the early railway pioneers had to think big when building a railway to cross it".

The Algebuckina Bridge spans more than half a kilometre across the Neales River, a triumph of steel and rivets and sheer hard work.

"Well the bridge is actually made in England in the late 1800s. It probably looks a bit of an overkill when you see it now, but when this does flood it becomes an amazingly big river".

The Ghan Line was named after the Afghan cameleers who criss-crossed this harsh country. As you travel across it, you can still spot the splashes of colour from the native hops, said to have grown from seeds carried in saddlebags of men like Bejah Dervish, a well known cameleer at the turn of the century. By then the train had made its way to Oodnadatta and by the late 1920s the line had crossed the border into Alice Springs with many a train traveller remembering an epic trip safely ensconsed in the dining or lounge cars.

But by the early 1980's this romantic, if often unreliable service, had come to an end, replaced by a new standard gauge line branching out from Tarcoola to Alice. Now as we look back to Federation, a nation awaits for its extension all the way to Darwin and the fulfilment of a promise made so many years ago.

If you want an insight into this country's fascinating railway past, then a trip up the Oodnadatta Track is a must. If you want to do it in comfort, then tag along with John Stillwell's mail run. He leaves from Coober Pedy every Monday and Thursday. Bookings can be made on 1800-069-911. The Pink RoadHouse at Oodnadatta has a key to the town's railway museum. For more information email info@postcards.sa.com.au