TALES FROM THE INDIAN PACIFIC: WHEN BILLY GOAT HILL MET ANGORA HEIGHTS

Queen Adelaide Dining Car 

Breakfast on board the Indian Pacific on day 2 was a brisk affair - a full breakfast efficiently served in the dining car as we pulled into Broken Hill shortly after 7 a.m.  

The outback town of Broken Hill came into existence in the 1880s when one of the world’s richest ore deposits was discovered. The Broken Hill Proprietary was soon formed to mine silver, lead and zinc.

BHP operates today as BHP Billiton, one of the world's largest global resources companies.  

The Miner's Memorial above the town

Sadly, Broken Hill’s early economic success came at a dreadful human cost, with almost 800 miners losing their lives.

At the time the pit ponies were considered more valuable than the men and boys who worked the mines.

The Miner’s Memorial located atop the Line of Lode remnants overlooking the town is a striking site and a moving experience to visit.

 A mining relic of the past in Broken Hill

Broken Hill must have been quite the place during the peak of its success with pubs on every street corner and hotels aplenty.  The Palace Hotel for one, with its tribute to Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” replicated on the second floor ceiling.  This establishment was featured in “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”. Who can forget Mitzi Del Bra's hopeful utterance - “here’s hoping they have a decent cocktail bar” - before he and his fellow drag queens crossed the Palace Hotel’s threshold.

The town’s jail reveals some interesting stories too,  in particular the Australian Government’s decision during World War Two to conceal its gold reserves in the jail.  Fear of invasion from the north was very real and given Broken Hill’s location the jail provided excellent cover.  Apparently there was also a Plan B:  if the worst happened the gold’s next resting place would be the mine itself.

Keeping up appearances in the social hierarchy of town was also apparently important back in the day.  A grisly wag with a gleaming silver earring informed us that when a few new houses were built on Billy Goat Hill, the neighbourhood became known as Angora Heights.  Sounds to me like a bar story that grew legs.

Farmlands of South Australia pass by during 
lunch in the Queen Adelaide Restaurant

Its worth noting that two of Australia’s iconic outback services are  located in Broken Hill - The Royal Flying Doctor Service and The School of the Air, the latter of which brings education to children located in remote areas.

All aboard, we pulled away from Broken Hill station and before long crossed from New South Wales into South Australia where the tracks turned south to Adelaide. 

TALES FROM THE INDIAN PACIFIC - WEST TO THE INDIAN OCEAN

Sydney Central Station

There is an unabashed romance about overnight train journeys. The thought of crossing a continent in comfort while gradually taking in a changing landscape definitely has its appeal and we were thrilled at the prospect of a three-day train trip from Sydney to Perth on board the fabled Indian Pacific.

Twenty-three gleaming silver cars with two blue and yellow engines and car carrier pulled slowly out of Sydney Central Station. The train was so long, it had occupied two platforms and once passengers had been boarded the engines shunted one half of the train to join the other, and off we went.

The suburbs of Sydney continued for close to an hour and as the sun set we traversed the Blue Mountains, which as it turns out are not actually mountains at all.  More a plateau, interspersed with dramatic deep canyons.  The forests of eucalyptus trees on the landscape give off a natural chemical that creates a bluish haze over the region and hence the name "Blue Mountains".

Settling in - cabin in daytime mode

Settled in our cabin we enjoyed the passing scenery through picture windows on both sides of the train. Our steward brought a pre-dinner platter of cheese, olives and figs, complimented by a very pleasant chilled Australian white.

A three course dinner, with a main course of lamb shanks, followed in the Queen Adelaide Restaurant and was much enjoyed in conversation with fellow travellers on this epic journey across the continent.

Cabin prepared for bedtime

In the meantime our cabin had been converted into comfortable sleeping quarters.  A night cap, chocolate and tickets for the next day's off train excursions awaited.

The rattling of the rails and the side to side movement of the train whisked us off to sleep in no time. Tomorrow we would arrive early in Broken Hill on the western edge of New South Wales for a short stop and later in the day, Adelaide, capital of South Australia.