A trip on the Ghan
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Adelaidewritten by Jim Downes photography by Berthold Daum |
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Adelaidewritten by Jim Downes photography by Berthold Daum |
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Adelaide, the starting point of The
Ghan’s journey to Central Australia, owes its shape and style to
the British Army, in particular to a British Army Surveyor assigned in colonial
times to design the future capital city of the free colony, South
Australia.
Reflections of Adelaide
Colonel William Light did his work so well that the design he prepared a century and a half ago has remained the blueprint for modern Adelaide, a city now of some one million people who claim it to be one of the world’s most successful cities. Its business heart is separated from its suburbs by generous parklands on all four sides, and nowhere in Adelaide is very far from anywhere else. The sportsgrounds are the envy of cities everywhere. The beaches and the bush are close by. In the hills edging the coastal plain micro climates create an environment more European than Australian. Some of the world’s best vineyards are half an hour’s drive from the city, and again the European heritage is apparent in ordered vineyards and elegant old stone buildings that date from the German settlers who gave to South Australia, in return for refuge from religious persecution in Europe, their skills as farmers, vignerons and wine makers.
For more than a hundred years the wines of South Australia’s Barossa Valley were a private treasure because past generations of Australians were not much interested in wines. That changed, suddenly and spectacularly half way through the 20th Century, and the wines of the Barossa now are a national treasure.
The first half hour of The Ghan’s journey is quite literally through the backyards of Adelaide, beginning at Australian National’s headquarters, and The Ghan’s home base, the railway terminal at Keswick.
At
Keswick
Once just a station on Adelaide’s suburban rail system, Keswick is now
the hub of Australian National’s passenger network whose rails span
the continent from the Indian Ocean coast at Perth to the Pacific coast at
Sydney, and from Adelaide to Central Australia. Keswick is more than a train
station: It’s a centre of tourist adventure, and the journeys that begin
here are listed among the great railway journeys of the world: Adelaide to
Sydney, Adelaide to Perth across the vast treeless plain called The Nullarbor,
and Adelaide to Alice Springs, Central Australia, the route of The
Ghan....
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