Nike Running Shoes The Ghan, the Adelaide to Darwi

In the 1970’s South Australian officials started to address the line’s limitations. A new track was laid 200km to the west [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], away from the Lake Eyre Flood Plains. In 1980 the new Ghan started service to Alice Springs. It had much improved accommodation and provided a whole new tourist experience, making the Red Centre more easily accessible. The Adelaide – Alice Springs train journey was cut to 24 hours.
The Railway to Alice Springs
In the very early days camels were introduced from South Central Asia to work the trade routes to and from the interior. Along with them came their drivers, mostly natives of Afghanistan who were accustomed to the harsh conditions. When the earliest railway north from Port Augusta was built it became known as the Afghan Express in honour of those hardy individuals. That name was eventually shortened to ‘The Ghan’.
In 1942 Darwin was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The city was a focal point in the nation’s defences and good access was critical for the movement of men and equipment. There was debate over a hasty completion of the railway, but instead the road between Alice Springs and the terminal of the Darwin line was sealed with tarmac.
The Ghan Goes to Darwin
In the meantime, a line from Darwin southwards was also under construction. It took until 1929 for this line to reach Birdum (500 km), where it stopped as funding ran out in the Great Depression.
The first train journey from Adelaide to Alice Springs took three days. The line was narrow gauge, and the land it traveled across was often unstable. Journeys could be delayed by floods and washouts, sometimes for days. In places the train’s speed was as low as 20km per hour over long stretches.
In the Northern Territory, the line to Birdum had been experiencing a steady drop in patronage as road transport took over. It was closed in 1976 and the track removed.
With the Ghan service north to Alice Springs increasing in popularity and the tourism industry becoming more important to the economies of both South Australia and the Northern Territory, it wasn’t long before attention turned back to the original plan – a rail link all the way to Darwin. Work began in 2001, and within two years the first freight trains were operating. On 1 February 2004 the first Darwin-bound passenger train set out from Adelaide, and two days later it arrived in Darwi
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The railway connection north to Alice Springs was the next target, but it would take a while. In 1926 work began to extend the line from Oodanadatta. The section was completed in 1929, opening the way for Alice Springs to develop from the small settlement it then was. There was now railway track across two thirds of the continent north/south.
Opening up Australia’s Outback
In 1878 amid great fanfare [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the first length of rail was laid at Port Augusta on the South Australia coast. While the railway would be built in sections [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the long-term plan was a grandiose one - the railway would eventually stretch 2,970 kilometers north to Darwin on the Timor Sea. Construction northwards took thirteen years to reach Oodnadatta, about a third of the way to Darwin.
During the 19th century, the vast interior of Australia was slowly but steadily being opened up. Much of it desert, there also existed places where livestock could be grazed, and the potential riches from the minerals there were recognized at an early stage. Travel was an arduous undertaking, and plans were drawn up for a rail link that would make the land available for exploitation.

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