Ditch the plane and catch the train instead
A Great Southern railway journey from Brisbane to Adelaide makes the case for forgoing the hassle of a domestic flight.
There are moments on the four-day Great Southern railway journey from Brisbane to Adelaide when the rumble of the train trundling down the line provides the perfect percussive accompaniment.
It’s late afternoon on a Monday in the Outback Explorer Lounge and guests are settling back into the curved banquettes, taking in the vista of the verdant NSW Northern Rivers region. Bar manager Ria is serving up the refreshing Splash of Summer signature cocktail (rum, elderflower liqueur, ginger beer, orange juice, lime juice and a sprig of mint) while musician Kev Jones fires up Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues.“I hear the train a-comin’, it’s rolling ’round the bend.”
No need for a rhythm section with that chugging train drumbeat. A couple next to me contemplate dancing, but it’s early days and the party has just begun. We’ve stepped on board for one of the first journeys of the 2023-24 season on this route.
During the summer months, the familiar camel livery of Journey Beyond Rail’s The Ghan (which runs from March to November) is replaced with a kangaroo and a brilliant orange locomotive representing the summer sun.
The carriages, 28 in all, travel between Brisbane and Adelaide and back, taking in stops on the southern journey in the Hunter Valley-Newcastle area and Melbourne-Moorabool Valley.
Earlier that morning, Kev welcomed us, fittingly, with a version of Great Southern Land by Icehouse over canapes, coffee and sparkling wine on the grassy grounds of Hanworth House, a former 19th-century women’s hospice in East Brisbane.
The property’s chatelaine, Marisa Vecchio, talked us through the restoration work, the harrowing ordeal when an arsonist put a match to it, and the subsequent rebuilding. After a self-guided tour, we’re bussed to the Acacia Ridge terminal to board the 663m-long train.
Not so long ago, I traversed the 478km stretch across the Nullarbor on Journey Beyond Rail’s Indian Pacific, where the view alternates between endless red dirt and shrubs punctuated by salt lakes and the odd rusted 10-gallon drum.
The train from Brisbane to Adelaide
This snaking journey on the Great Southern of more than 2000km offers altogether different vistas of lush farmland, rivers and rolling hills, although these bucolic landscapes are interrupted by shopping malls and, for what seems like an eternity, Sydney’s sprawling Rookwood cemetery.
At other times, corridors lined with industrial warehouses spool out to quarter-acre suburban backyards. Intermittently, the train creaks and shudders to a halt, the Great Southern almost exhaling a sigh as it waits for a freight train to roll down the line.
I’m in a Gold Twin cabin, a three-seater by day that converts into a single bed at night. Up above there’s a bunk bed accessed by a ladder.
A small, private ensuite is stocked with Appelles amenities, and a large window takes in the ever-changing view. But such is the convivial nature of train travel, most of my time is spent in the Outback Explorer Lounge. Guests are playing Scrabble, and others, once perfect strangers, relax into the rhythm, divulging life stories.
In the adjacent Art Deco-styled Queen Adelaide Restaurant dining carriage, chef Tim Noble is whipping up all-inclusive cuisine with produce from the immediate region.
On the Queensland-NSW border we dine on a menu rich in crunchy macadamias, juicy mangoes and pineapples. Closer to Adelaide we feast on tender Victorian Goldfields duck leg and Barossa Fine Foods wagyu beef.
The food on the train
The menus highlight a native ingredient at each meal, from quandong to lemon myrtle sourced from Creative Native Foods, a company that supports Indigenous growers and communities and harvests sustainably. With Journey Beyond based in Adelaide, South Australian wines feature prominently.
Our signature off-train experiences begin in Coffs Harbour, where we pull up and board a coach for the beach with a Welcome to Country and dinner of local seafood (prawns from Coffs Coast, Nambucca rock oysters) under eucalypts and a string of festoon lights.
After dipping our toes in Charlesworth Bay, we reboard, our soles breaded with white sand.
In the Hunter Valley, Journey Beyond is offering a new experience that combines visits to wineries and lunch with a 15-minute helicopter ride taking in Broken Back Range, Hunter Valley Gardens and the wineries from above.
Excursions off the train
The experience begins with a wine tasting at the spotted gum-clad Brokenwood Wines where we’re guided through shiraz from the neighbouring Graveyard Vineyard (so named because it was once designated a cemetery for Pokolbin) and the Sticky Wicket semillon. The next tasting at Wynwood Estate is paired with scrumptious chocolates from Cocoa Nib. It is here that guests are whisked up above for the chopper ride before sitting down to lunch at Twine restaurant onsite. Other excursions include a walking tour of Newcastle, and trips in Port Stephens on land and by boat.
Our choice of outings in Victoria is curtailed by a medivac emergency stop in Wangaratta (all was OK for the patient in the end, thankfully), which means my chosen new experience, a private guided tour of the National Gallery of Victoria and lunch above Melbourne’s skyline at Eureka 89 is replaced with a visit to a family-run winery in Bannockburn, closer to the rails. Terry Jongebloed and Sue Dixon, the owners of Clyde Park cool climate winery near Geelong, know how to put on a spectacular feast. Flavourful Peking duck pizza is followed by marinated Sutherlands Creek lamb slathered with mint sauce and jus with a side of duck fat potatoes and paired with Clyde Park rose and Single Block pinot noir.
Topped with limestone, the black volcanic soil here brings an intensity to the pinot noir, Terry tells us. Back in the Outback Explorer Lounge, over a biscuit and a cup of tea, service operations manager Bruce Smith, who has been with Journey Beyond for 28 years, schools us on the different degrees of train enthusiasm, from keen to fanaticism.
“You’ve got what we call your gunzels, your megagunzels and then,” lowering his voice, “there are the foamers. That’s a person who foams at the mouth when they see a train.”
Railroaders like Bruce have seen every incarnation. At Gheringhap, near Geelong, I think I spot one, parked alongside the tracks and operating a drone that is hovering above the Great Southern. He looks elated.
Why train travel is so good
On board, I meet a gunzel who joins fellow train buffs twice a week to work on a model railway clubhouse in Queensland. At every station I look for trainspotters, perhaps one like the delightfully endearing British enthusiast (and now Gucci model), Francis Bourgeois (real name Luke Nicolson), whose social media following is in the millions. Bourgeois’ passion is contagious; he’s a definite foamer.
In his book, The Trainspotter’s Notebook, he reveals why he loves trains so much: “The huge amounts of momentum in a moving train, juxtaposed by the directional restriction of the rails, gives me an odd sense of calm,” he writes.
This fledgling gunzel can’t help but agree. Moving forward is just one of the beguiling elements of train travel. Add to this, the unfolding of the landscape, the clattering through the night, which may occasion the odd lurch but easily lulls you back to slumber, and that perfectly timed drumbeat when the music kicks in.
On our last night, Kev’s back in the lounge strumming Beatles and Van Morrison hits. Outside, a handful of lights beckon from a distant township somewhere near the South Australian border. Fellow travellers Pam and Gary dance by the bar while others are coaxed into getting up on the mic to sing along. The Man in Black is reprised, the final line with localised lyrics: “That train keeps a-rollin’ on down to Adelaide.”
More to the story
This month, Journey Beyond introduced a new category of accommodation on the Great Southern and The Ghan that sits between Gold and Platinum, named Gold Premium class. Design firm Woods Bagot was tasked with the refurbishment, with a colour palette drawing inspiration from the rich colours of Arrernte painter Albert Namatjira’s landscapes. Design elements include walnut timber and polished brass detailing, along with Indigenous prints on the upholstery.
The Gold Premium Suite option includes a three-quarter-size double bed plus a fold-down upper berth and lounge area. The Gold Premium Lounge has leather banquettes and swivel chairs with mood lighting, while the Gold Premium Dining carriage maintain its Art Deco-style, but with a fresh colour palette; from $5995 a person, twin-share, Brisbane-Adelaide.
In the know
The Great Southern operates from December to February. The Adelaide-Brisbane journey is a three-day itinerary; Brisbane to Adelaide is four days. From $3560 a person,
twin-share, in a Gold Twin cabin for the Brisbane-Adelaide route; from $2455 in the opposite direction.
Andrea Black was a guest of Journey Beyond Rail.
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