Crossing Australia on the Ghan

It’s not just nature’s feats that will fill your clients with awe, however. The Ghan itself is a bewildering triumph of engineering, 127 years in the making, with sleepers laid in some of the most desolate and flood-prone floodprone pockets of Australia.

The first section of track between Adelaide and Alice Springs was completed in 1929, but it wasn’t until 2004 that the final portion from the Red Centre to Darwin was finished.

Since its inception, the onboard offering has undergone several transformations too. Gone are the economy sleeper seats that once housed backpackers and budget travellers, as are the numerousstops at outback towns that allowed passengers to board and disembark at will along the way.

Today there are just two classes – Gold Service and the more premium Platinum – and just three Outback Experience stops. The journey, however, can be diced any of seven different ways.

Many guests I meet choose to alight in Alice Springs and explore Uluru and its wider national park, then continue on to Darwin a week later, when the train returns northbound. Some merely travel on the Adelaide to Alice Springs leg, or vice versa. But nearly all have one thing in common: The Ghan represents only one small part of a much bigger itinerary that typically takes in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and the Great Barrier Reef.

After travelling for almost a day just to reach the continent, the European travellers I meet are tired of wasting time in sterile airport departure lounges but lack the time and energy to traverse the entire country at the wheel of a hire car.

There is, however, one striking similarity between air travel and The Ghan – my Gold Service single cabin is as sleek and ergonomic as anything you’ll find when turning left on a legacy airline.

Renovated in 2016, these compact cabins are the train’s most modern, featuring distinctive, winding corridors and spacious new shared bathrooms. Each compartment is decked in natural materials (a seamless timber finish, leather headrest and woven cotton upholstered chair) and features an array of handy amenities, such as a fold-down armrest, a pullout tray table and plug sockets next to your chair-cum-bed, an in-room sink and towels and plenty of storage space, not to mention a toiletries bag filled with products from homegrown botanicals brand Appelles.

The Queen Adelaide Restaurant carriage, on the other hand, is a study in elegance and old-school glamour. A regal-esque insignia of “QAR” is emblazoned in curly gold writing around the restaurant’s perimeter. A window into the outback, complete with its own set of curtains, graces every snug booth. And naturally, the place settings have already been immaculately set by the time the food and beverage manager leads us to our table for dinner.

Almost every meal boasts a threecourse menu (yes, even brunch), and is designed to complement the exact region you’re travelling through. On day one, as we venture towards the northernmost reaches of South Australia, I devour Spencer Gulf prawn and pork dumplings, bathed in a delicately fragranced chicken broth for starters. Next is a plate of tender, blushing pink South Rock Lamb from Kangaroo Island, accompaniedby a sweet beetroot tart and brussel sprout puree. It’s a struggle to make it to dessert, but as the train is all-inclusive it would be rude to skip the finale – a platter of local cheeses, crackers an muscatels somehow finds its way into my belly.