Central Australia Railway

File:The Ghan route map.png

Map showing the separate routes

Note that this was a different railway from the current Adelaide-Darwin railway

The Central Australia Railway was a railway between Adelaide and Alice Springs, it was a precursor to the Adelaide-Darwin railway, however it was a different route, and a different gauge.

In the 1890s and into the twentieth century it was sometimes referred to as the Great Northern Railway

It was frequently referred to as The Ghan and also since completing of the newer railway has been referred to as the Old Ghan.

Construction in the 1870s was by South Australian Railways as a 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) narrow gauge railway. The final part of the line closed in 1980 when the standard gauge line opened on a new alignment from Tarcoola to Alice Springs.

Timeline (including the Northern railway)

• 18 January 1878: South: Construction from Port Augusta starts
• 1879: South: Quorn reached
• 1883: South: Marree reached
• 1883: North: Construction of the North Australia Railway from Palmerston (Darwin) starts
• 1888: North: Pine Creek reached
• 1891: South: Oodnadatta reached, and known as the Great Northern Railway
• 1910: First promise by Federal Government to complete the line in the Acceptance Act (but no date given)
• 1926: Line acquired by Commonwealth Railways
• 1926: North: Katherine reached
• 1929: North: Birdum reached, terminus at Larrimah, and known as the North Australia Railway
• 6 August 1929: South: Alice Springs reached, and officially renamed the Central Australia Railway, but popularly known as The Ghan. The northern and southern parts are not connected.
• 1957: South: Standard gauge line from Stirling North (near Port Augusta) to Marree opened replacing line via Quorn
  • Some sections of the narrow-gauge line remain in operation as the Pichi Richi Railway
• 1976: North: line closed
• 1980: South: line closed, replaced by Tarcoola-Alice Springs line

List of stations

The route on a signboard at Quorn station

2

Conditions

The tortuously curving narrow-gauge line between Marree and Alice Springs was notoriously prone to delays, often caused by flash floods washing away bridges and tracks.

Film

Shortly before the closure of the narrow gauge line in 1980, BBC Television filmed an episode of the television series Great Railway Journeys of the World featuring the original route of the Ghan (and the infamously slow speed of the train).

Communities after closure

One major change with the building of the new line (and resulting closure of the old) was that Oodnadatta and other communities along the route of the original line lost their railway service.

Heritage trail

The old railway route is now a heritage trail

See also

• North Australia Railway

External links

• History of the Adelaide-Darwin Railway
• Tarcoola to Alice Springs Railway Act 1974
• Weekend Extra film on the last original Ghan Australian Broadcasting Corporation 1980