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Hunting >> Hunting in Australia, NZ & the South Pacific
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NitroXAdministrator
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Hooray, the Ghan goes through to Darwin
      #4375 - 11/10/03 03:21 AM



"The Ghan" the name of the train that travels from Adelaide to Alice Springs since 1929 has finnally had its tracks laid to Darwin.

Promised since the 1930's when the State of South Australia gave up its rights to the Northern Territory (then part of South Australia) in return for the Commonwealth's Governments "promise" to build a North-South railway, it has finally happened. It only took them 70 years!



What does this mean for hunting in Oz? Well for us "Southerners" it means we can put a 'cruiser on the train all the way up - 2,979 kms (1,861 miles) - and travel in comfort and also have a hunting equipped vehicle ready to be off-loaded when we arrive. I really would like to give this a try perhaps next year.


Watch out Skippy. Get out of the way!

"The Ghan" got its name from the origins of travel in the "red-centre". Read the following from The Ghan web site:



"A hundred and fifty years ago, the first camels were imported along with their handlers from Afghanistan and, in true Australian style, we soon shortened their name to ‘Ghan’. The Ghan train derives its name from these early pioneers and its emblem of an Afghan on a camel is in recognition of their efforts in opening up the harsh interior to the rest of Australia.



Early explorers and later the telegraph linesmen used camels, perfectly adapted for travelling long distances through the hot, inhospitable interior, to blaze a permanent trail into Central Australia. Today, you can make this journey with creature comforts our forbears would never have imagined. Boarding The Ghan in Adelaide for Alice Springs, you’ll experience one of the most fascinating great train journeys of the world. You’ll marvel at the spectacular colours of the outback, the spinifex plains and salt pans of the vast interior and the rugged MacDonnell Ranges on this epic adventure to the heartland of Australia. Alice Springs is the ideal base from which to explore the wonders of the Red Centre, such as Palm Valley, Ayers Rock/ Uluru, The Olgas/ Kata Tjuta and King’s Canyon."


Fine dining



Comfortable travel


Painted Locomotive


www.theghan.com.au

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gryphon
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Re: Hooray, the Ghan goes through to Darwin [Re: NitroX]
      #4378 - 11/10/03 05:35 AM

yep it will go onto the list of "great train jouneys" but check out the prices ouch! still not a bad idea of putting the truck on the train and living it up instead of driving, speaking of which i will have to drive 1500 miles to get to the departure point hahahaha...people will do that for sure not me.

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AspenHill
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Re: Hooray, the Ghan goes through to Darwin [Re: gryphon]
      #4413 - 13/10/03 09:52 PM

Looks nice, however, there isn't much meat on that dinner plate.

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~Ann

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NitroXAdministrator
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Re: Hooray, the Ghan goes through to Darwin [Re: AspenHill]
      #4415 - 14/10/03 02:38 AM

Ann

You will have to shoot a skippy out of the window. Then you can have a whole haunch.


Gryph

Come on. You can have a rest after that drive .

Youre right though. The main passengers will be from Adelaide and Melbourne - to and from. Plus hopefully good amounts of freight.

The top class sleeper cabins are very expensive. Haven't looked at the usual ones yet, but who would want to spend two nights in a chair in cattle class. Might as well fly or camp in the back of the Landcruiser - quiieter and could lie down too .


Anyone

This train will travel about 3000 kms on a one way journey. If you take say the 100 kilometres on each side of the track on the way from Adelaide to Darwin, have a guess at what the total population would be? Not including Darwin or Adelaide.





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Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
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gryphon
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Re: Hooray, the Ghan goes through to Darwin [Re: NitroX]
      #4417 - 15/10/03 04:21 AM

not counting Adelaide and Darwin..total pop would be lucky to make 100 thou Though i`m not sure how far the Alice is from the track wether to include or not

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mickey
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Re: Hooray, the Ghan goes through to Darwin [Re: NitroX]
      #4489 - 20/10/03 03:07 PM

I can see why they call it the 'Ghan'. They must have had the paint scheme designed by one an Indian Weaver. It looks like one of those Calcutta Taxis.




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Lovu Zdar
Mick

A Man of Pleasure, Enterprise, Wit and Spirit Rare Books, Big Game Hunting, English Rifles, Fishing, Explosives, Chauvinism, Insensitivity, Public Drunkenness and Sloth, Champion of Lost and Unpopular Causes.

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NitroXAdministrator
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Re: Hooray, the Ghan goes through to Darwin [Re: mickey]
      #4492 - 20/10/03 10:12 PM

Mickey

the painting style of the locomotive is based on Aboriginal dot painting and originated in Central Australia. You may see a Qantas jet or two also covered in the "dot painting" style.

When you are next in the Northern Territory it would be worth checking out some of these paintings are they can be quite interesting and can increase substantially in value if by a recognised artist.

I purchased one from a small community South West of Alice Springs in 1996 from a small local art gallery. Much cheaper than from Alice Springs only 500 kilometres away.

I wanted to emulate my Grandfather who travelled to the region and worked to establish a mission for the desert Aboriginals at Hermannsburg. When he was there he purchased a small painting by Albert Naminjera (spelling?) who is now recognised as the greatest Aboriginal artist. Naminjera's paintings are not dot painting which is much more modern but draws its roots probably from body painting for ceremonies. The painting he purchased in the early 1900's is totally different from his usual style and is perhaps unique. His normal style was beautiful desert landscapes and I have been thinking of starting a thread on them for some time. His paintings reflect the Aboriginal cultural view of "belonging" to the land. If you look closely you will find faces of totems in the rocks, hills and trees. Spirits of ancestors that are part of the land.



--------------------
John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"

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NitroXAdministrator
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Re: Hooray, the Ghan goes through to Darwin [Re: NitroX]
      #4493 - 20/10/03 10:28 PM

PS You may be interested.

The town where I purchased the painting was an Aboriginal community. But believe it or not it is the most clean and orderly town I have seen in the outback, and has won the NT Tidy Town award many times. It is a dry community (ie no alcohol permitted at all) and a Christian community. While it is dusty (as it is in a desert) the dirt was freshly raked and levelled with white washed stones as borders.

Just for interest sake I checked out its camp ground and the facilities were perfectly cleaned.

They also did small walking tours up a ravine where they showed us ancient rock paintings at permanent water holes in shallow caves. The young bloke who was acting as a tour guide and I had a chat about hunting and he told me of some of their hunting tactics in the desert.


Unfortunately I can't remember the town's name (a large scale map is required) bit it is a great example of community spirit and hard work, unlike the usual pathetic self-caused squalor and unhygenic conditions rampamt through most of these communities due to laziness, ignorance, alcoholism and stupidity.


--------------------
John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"

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gryphon
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Re: Hooray, the Ghan goes through to Darwin [Re: NitroX]
      #4499 - 21/10/03 05:56 AM

ALBERT NAMATJIRRA

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mickey
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Re: Hooray, the Ghan goes through to Darwin [Re: NitroX]
      #4668 - 31/10/03 01:33 PM

Nitro

Do you have any prices for this? Putting a cruiser on and ticket on the train? It looks like we will be driving up in August again if everything works out. At 100kph it takes loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo- ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg time.

--------------------
Lovu Zdar
Mick

A Man of Pleasure, Enterprise, Wit and Spirit Rare Books, Big Game Hunting, English Rifles, Fishing, Explosives, Chauvinism, Insensitivity, Public Drunkenness and Sloth, Champion of Lost and Unpopular Causes.

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NitroXAdministrator
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Re: Hooray, the Ghan goes through to Darwin [Re: mickey]
      #4682 - 01/11/03 02:02 AM

OK Mick, I'll be your slave. (ie the info is on the link on the original post but I have to work it out for myself anyway)

Fares

Adelaide to Darwin
- Gold Kangaroo A$1740 per person (this is for a premier class cabin) (from Melb it is $1850)
- Red Kangaroo (ie basic level cabin) $1390 pp (Melb $1490)
- Daynighter seat $440 pp (Melb $490)

Vehicle up to 5.5 metres in length (no roof racks)
-Adel to Alice Springs $389
- Melb to AS $439
- AS to Darwin $449
ie $1676 return for vehicle (Adel) and $1776 (Melb)
These rates assume you are travelling on the train with rates obtainable by quotation for unaccompanied vehicles.

So if return journey
if 2x persons using Red 'Roo accom with one vehicle A$7236
if Daynighter A$3436
Add $500 for Melb Red 'Roo or $300 Daynighter seat.

The journey is for 47 hours !!!! and 2979 kms.

Defintiely not cheap.

On the other hand a journey from Adeladie (return) is at least 6000 kms (probably more) if say 25 mpg and ave $1.10 per litre (probabaly too low for the outback) fuel would be $750 plus if you manage 1000 kms a day it would take three days good driving one way (plus the Melb leg). Say four days from experience at least. Plus wear and tear on the vehicles.

If flying obviously it would be balanced against air fares and hire of vehicle plus only having very minimal gear with.Say about $900 return airfares - Adelaide and about $200 per day hire of 4WD.

To me the best deal would be to put the Landcruiser on the train and fly up. This would depend on how much the fee is increased for an unaccompanied vehicle. ie $1676 return + $? That way you would have an equipped vehicle, save the vehicle hire costs say the long train journey or longer drive. If staying for about ten days or longer (and hire vehicle for this long) it would be cheaper.



--------------------
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Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
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mickey
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Re: Hooray, the Ghan goes through to Darwin [Re: NitroX]
      #4683 - 01/11/03 02:48 AM

Thank you slave. There will be a little extra sugar in your porridge tonight.

--------------------
Lovu Zdar
Mick

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4seventy
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Re: Hooray, the Ghan goes through to Darwin [Re: NitroX]
      #4691 - 01/11/03 09:10 AM

Going by the photos the only way you'd get me on that train is if my cabin came with one of those brunette bedwarmers!

If you've got two drivers it's a piece of cake to do a 3000 k run and can be done in about 2 1/2 days or less.
After all most of this trip is on inland roads where driving is pretty layback.

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NitroXAdministrator
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History, the Ghan goes through to Darwin [Re: 4seventy]
      #7051 - 17/01/04 09:03 PM

Well today history was made. The Ghan arrived in Darwin- well a freight train anyway.

Promised in 1910 in return for the State of South Australia relinguishing the Northern Territory to Commonwealth control it has only taken the Eastern dickheads 94 years to deliver on their promise.

Why? Well the vested interests of Eastern state industry cented around the Eastern seaboard docks have lobbied, torpedoed, confusticated, scared, ran BS alternative train projects since 1910. Suck sh*t Corrigan.

Finally the Northern gateway is open.

Unfortunately probably in 50 years the NT will be a developed area and highly populated so get your hunting in now. You have only got 50 years!



--------------------
John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"

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gryphon
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Re: History, the Ghan goes through to Darwin [Re: NitroX]
      #7056 - 18/01/04 09:27 AM

First passenger train is to go next week,there has been 15 million advance ticket sales sold already and a lot of the clients are from O/S that travel the world just to take train trips,i did Melb to Perth for three night one time long ago and what made it special was i did make the aquaintance of one of those brunette bed heaters....true hahaha!

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NitroXAdministrator
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Boo!, the Ghan goes through to Darwin [Re: NitroX]
      #12802 - 30/03/04 03:17 PM

What a bummer.

Did you know if you want to put an unaccompanied vehicle on the Ghan they will only confirm it 24 hours BEFORE DEPARTURE, in case a passenger wants to put a vehicle on.

What a waste of time !


And their fares are far higher than airfares.



--------------------
John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"

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