Make Your Journey In Style & Comfort
With Australia Train Travel

Australia Train Travel offers some of the of the most incredible and memorable rail journeys in the world.

The Ghan and Indian Pacific are the two great train journeys that criss-cross the length and breadth of the entire country from Adelaide in the south to Darwin in the north and from Sydney in the east to Perth in the west.

In each Australian State there are a number of Australian train travel journeys you can take either as a tourist or as a traveller bound for a destination.

The Ghan

Let's start with the mighty Ghan.

From south to north and return this journey will give you a firsthand experience of the great Australian Outback and its immense vastness.

The Ghan takes you from one end of Australian to the other right up the middle. The journey from Adelaide through Alice Springs then on to Darwin is about 2980 kilometres and takes just over a couple of days.

The Ghan is named after the Afghan camel drivers who in a large part opened up the vast interior of the nation long before motorised transport was available.

Construction on the first Ghan railway track began way back in 1878 but the section to Alice Springs wasn't finally completed until 1929. There were always plans to extend the line to Darwin but this was held up until 2004 when the first journey right through to Darwin was completed.

The old Gang track, which is to the east of the new track of today, carried the train for the last time in 1980.

Now it's the ultimate in Australia train travel through the interior of Australia and a journey you'll remember for the rest of your life.

You get to see the real outback from the comfort of an airconditioned spectacular train.

Find out more about the Ghan, including ticket prices, bookings and times to travel from Great Trains

The Indian Pacific

The Indian Pacific traverses the nation from east to west and return, taking in the Nullarbor Plain, the flat, semi-arid country of southern Australia that stretches about 500 kilometres without a hill or a tree.

The Australia train travel journey aboard the Indian Pacific takes you from Sydney through to Adelaide and then on to Perth over just under 3 days and 4,352 kilometres.

And it includes the longest stretch of straight railway in the world at 478 kilometres.

The first Indian Pacific Journey to extend all the way from Sydney to Perth left Sydney on the 23rd of February 1970, until then you had to change trains several times if you wanted to cross the country from east to west or west to east.

Crossing from one side of Australia to the other in the Indian Pacific is the Australia train travel of a lifetime.

Find out everything else you need to know about the wonderful Indian Pacific, including prices, departure times, bookings etc. from Great Trains here.

The Southern Spirit

The Southern Spirit offers a rail journey between Adelaide and Brisbane via Melbourne and is the opportunity to explore the southern and eastern areas of Australia, taking in large areas of New South Wales.

The first trip of the Southern Spirit took place in January 2010.

The Southern Spirit is a luxury train with private cabins that takes you on a journey at a leisurely pace over 6 days.

You can find out more about the Australia train travel journey on the Rail Maps Site here.

Countrylink, which is run by the New South Wales Government, offers a range of Australia train travel within New South Wales, to the ACT, Victoria and Queensland, including inland destinations and outback journeys.

Victoria also has Vline which has a wide choice of inland tourist destinations and the XPT travelling between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Queensland Rail Holidays offers the largest and most comprehensive network of long distance Australia train travel and tourist trains in Australia.

There's also the tropical north trains, the Kuranda Scenic Railway, Gulflander, Savannahlander and many more. Just check out Queensland Rail for more information.

South Australia besides being part of both the Indian Pacific and The Ghan also has other train journeys. Check the Rail Maps Site here.

And in the West obviously the Indian Pacific takes in a large part of West Australia including the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie but there's also much more to do by train in Western Australia. Go to Transwa for more information.

You can see a detailed map showing Australia train travel within Australia and get more information at Australian Rail Maps here.

If you're travelling to Australia whichever one of these Australia train travel journeys you choose, it's sure to be an amazing trip you'll remember forever.

Have a wonderful train experience.