Australia
Australia is the sixth-largest country in the world — 7.7 million square kilometres of mainland, plus Tasmania and a great many smaller islands — and the flattest and driest inhabited continent on earth. Only about 27.6 million people live on it, almost all of them around the coastal rim, with desert through the interior and tropical rainforest along parts of the northern shore.
That is the whole explanation for Australian railways. A continent carrying the population of a medium-sized country cannot support a dense national network, so what it has instead is a small number of enormous scheduled crossings — multi-night trains run as travel in their own right rather than as transport — alongside commuter systems in the cities and a few short scenic lines. Distance here is measured in nights rather than hours, and on the great crossings the emptiness outside the window is the entire point.
Rail journeys in Australia
Great Southern
A summer-only sleeper from Adelaide to Brisbane, running in the three months the Ghan rests, with days ashore in the Grampians, Canberra and Coffs Harbour.
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Gulflander
A 1950 railmotor across Queensland's Gulf Country, once a week each way, on a line built to go under in the floods and joined to no other railway.
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Indian Pacific
Sydney to Perth — 4,352 km, three nights, and the longest dead-straight stretch of railway on earth: 478 kilometres across the Nullarbor without a single curve.
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The Inlander
Townsville to Mount Isa overnight on Queensland's first air-conditioned train, through a gold-rush city and fossil country to the copper hills.
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Kuranda Scenic Railway
Cairns to Kuranda through the rainforest — 37 km, 15 tunnels dug by hand and 37 bridges, climbing an escarpment past waterfalls to the Atherton Tableland.
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Pichi Richi Railway
The original Ghan line through the Pichi Richi Pass, saved by volunteers who set out in 1973 to protect its stone walls and iron bridges.
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Puffing Billy
A 1900 narrow-gauge steam line in the Dandenong Ranges, where passengers still ride on the sill of an open carriage with their legs over the side.
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Savannahlander
A silver 1960s railmotor on a four-day round trip into Queensland's savannah, on a line one tiny outback town once blockaded to keep its train.
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Spirit of Queensland
Brisbane to Cairns overnight: 1,681 km up a coast line opened in more than 60 pieces between 1881 and 1924, in seats that fold flat into beds.
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Spirit of the Outback
Brisbane to Longreach overnight, through outback towns that each began as the end of the line — one of them the headquarters of the 1891 shearers' strike.
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The Ghan
Adelaide to Darwin, 2,979 km straight up the middle of Australia — begun in the 1870s, finished in 2004, named after the Afghan cameleers.
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The West Coast Wilderness Railway
A Tasmanian copper railway from the 1890s, still climbing its 1-in-16 Abt rack behind the steam engines built for it.
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The Westlander
Brisbane to Charleville overnight on the world's first narrow-gauge main line. Ride it east, and the train comes down the Main Range in the morning light.
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Zig Zag Railway
A heritage train down the Blue Mountains escarpment by reversing twice, on the 1869 zig zag the main line gave up for ten tunnels in 1910.
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What are Australia's best rail journeys?
Three, and they could hardly be more different. The Ghan (Adelaide–Darwin, 2,979 km) and the Indian Pacific (Sydney–Perth, 4,352 km, with the world's longest straight stretch of track) are multi-night luxury crossings of the continent, run by Journey Beyond. The Kuranda Scenic Railway above Cairns is the opposite: a two-hour rainforest day trip up an escarpment, and every bit as much a feat of Victorian engineering.
Can you explore Australia by train?
Up to a point. Distances are enormous and there is no dense national network, so for visitors Australian rail means a handful of iconic journeys rather than everyday transport — epic transcontinental crossings, a few state and regional lines, and spectacular scenic day trips. It is a country you fly around and take the train for the journey's own sake.
Do the long-distance trains need booking?
Absolutely. The Ghan and Indian Pacific are all-inclusive luxury trains — sleepers only, no economy — that run about once a week and sell out months ahead, especially in peak season. Because they run weekly and cross vast distances, most people fly one leg and take the train the other. Book the train first and plan around it.
When is the best time to visit Australia?
It spans many climates. The tropical north — Kuranda and the northern end of the Ghan — is most comfortable in the dry season, May to October; the southern cities are pleasantest in spring and autumn. The Nullarbor, crossed by the Indian Pacific, is hot whenever. Book the transcontinental trains months ahead in any season.