Indian Pacific, Great Southern Rail: 5 Reasons You Should Take The Slow Way Next Time You Travel Across Australia

November 6, 2016

From plush bunk beds to dining in style at 86km per hour, here’s why we’re obsessed with the old-school charm of the Indian Pacific (and you will be too).

You Can Give The Inbox A Break Without Sacrificing The Little Luxuries

Our world lives and dies by connectivity. Between email, Snapchat, Instagram, Insta-Stories, Facebook and Twitter, it feels like there isn’t one iota of our existence that is private anymore.

We’re even at a place where we apologise for the ‘delay’ if we take longer than a day to respond to an email.

There’s even an entire range of tech-break style retreats designed specifically to wean you off all your gadgets (we’ve even listed a few here). Most of these are in some far-flung country, raising the barrier to entry a little higher until you end up just giving up trying to schedule in the break after all. Not to mention, many of these also require you to give up other vices such as sugar and alcohol (because God forbid you should have a good time while you’re off your phone).

But what if you’re craving a technology free escape but don’t want to sacrifice your tastebuds and a little luxury in return? This is how we ended up on Great Southern Rail’s (GSR) Indian Pacific from Sydney to Adelaide.

This is a travel experience dreamed up in 1917 and wholeheartedly revels in the pleasures from the time before the Internet. Primarily because once you leave the cities there’s scant wi-fi or reception to speak of.

Instead of this being a hindrance it allows travellers to completely give in to the journey and get more acquainted with themselves in the process.

We’re talking about the quiet enjoyment that you don’t experience in any other kind of travel. Things like sharing a wine with the other passengers, or reading a book (an actual book!) and occasionally glancing up and seeing the sprawling Australian bush gently roll past with the dulcet tones of Boy & Bear softly playing in your headphones.

It’s in the quiet reflective moments where you can let your mind wander that your brain synapses seem to relax and rejuvenation begins.

You’ll Get Back In Touch With Our (Great Southern) Land

For our international readers it helps to set the scene. Australia is not only a massive continent, we’ve got gaps of kilometres of seeming nothingness between our cosmopolitan cities. It’s part of what makes it unique but that’s also partly the reason why Aussies are such legendary international travellers (we clearly love a challenge) however we’re not so great at exploring our own country. The harsh truth being that sometimes it’s cheaper to fly to New York than it is to explore the dramatic gorges of the Kimberley.

But the brilliance of Australia is that every bit of time and effort you put into exploring is paid back to you with culture, adventure and soul-touching beauty. In our books, that’s worth every penny.

The Indian Pacific provides an introduction to some of our vast land’s most beautiful locations in a package that doesn’t compromise on comfort. Sometimes it feels as though the story of Australia is revealed with every kilometre you pass and it helps that the Indian Pacific radio station plays in the background sharing historic stories and lore by iconic bush poets.

You Get The Best Of Both Worlds

As much as there’s time to sit back and relax, there’s also plenty of on-foot exploration on offer for those who fear a little cabin fever.

Broken Hill provides an introduction to the creative and gritty history of our nation’s mining boom (still our country’s primary export). The town was built through the centuries of coal excavation, harnessed barrel by barrel by the hands of the hardy men and women who toil with the weight of Australia’s entire economy on their backs. The Miners Memorial is just a short drive from the station on the Broken Earth Tour and is a sobering reminder of the sacrifices made in the name of energy.

Tours run by Great Southern Rail cover both sides of the town’s history, stopping at the Broken Earth memorial, followed by a trip to The Living Desert, a sandstone sculpture site nestled into the beautiful Barrier Ranges.

The Broken Hill of today though is about more than mining and there’s a thriving hospitality industry that caters to the local gourmands and artistic community (both of which are covered on Great Southern Rail’s Living Desert and Pro Hart Gallery Tours).

Closer to Adelaide the train eases its way to a stop in a (seemingly) nondescript train station of Two Wells. From there you’re about 40km from South Australian capital of Adelaide but just a short bus ride to the Barossa Valley, the undisputed epicentre of Australia’s wine production.

From here, shuttle buses will take you past the stunning rural South Australian countryside directly to the door of some of the most awarded vineyards in the country. You’ll be treated to private tours and tasting and even have the opportunity to taste a vintage Tawny from your birth year at the picturesque Seppeltsfield Centenary Cellar (for an optional $AUD60 per person extra).

The Barossa tour ends with a grand meal inside the newly renovated wine vat-turned-dining room at the celebrated Yalumba winery.

Safe to say, you should probably leave the diet at home because…

You’ll Never Have Dinner Like It Anywhere Else

Meals aboard the Indian Pacific feel like a celebration of traditional hospitality and start with wines, music and conversation in the Explorer Lounge. This pre-game lounge-time helps build anticipation but also gives you an opportunity to get to know your fellow passengers (we had a couple from British Columbia, a group from Hervey Bay and a couple of city-worn Sydney-siders looking to escape the rush). We can imagine this being a dream for solo travellers craving a little social time.

The Queen Adelaide dining car almost feels enshrouded in mystery and ceremony in the sense that it can only be accessed at certain times and you the doors slowly automatically open as you enter, revealing rows of white cloth-covered tables.

The seasonal menu shifts each time you dine to celebrate the tastes of the region you happen to be passing through. Crispy pork belly at 86km per hour as the sun sets over the Central Tablelands? Don’t mind it we do.

And finally…

You’ll Remember Why The Journey Is Everything

Let’s not kid ourselves, the reason airlines are so busy trying to one-up each other with bigger screens, clearer audio, larger seats and so-opulent-you-need-to-be-a-Emirati-oil-Czar-to-afford-it First Class apartments is mostly because being locked in a metal tube, breathing recycled air some 45,000 feet in the air isn’t the greatest feeling in the world. They know that anything they can do to get you as far from in-the-moment as possible is a good thing.

Don’t begrudge them for it, there’s much joy to be found in watching back-to-back episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine with a mini-bottle of shiraz in hand.

But on a Great Southern Rail journey it’s exactly the opposite. Every moment is something to be savoured. The windows are huge, perfect for enjoying the view. The meals are delivered with ceremony on white tablecloths, even walking from your cabin to the lounge, passing through each rickety vestibule gives you an effervescent sense of adventure.

Whereas the apex of luxury on an airline is about measuring how far from your cabin mates you can get, on a rail journey you get as much out of it as you put in. Sure, you can hide in your cosy cabin and only venture out at mealtimes like Howard Hughes but sitting in the lounge and feeling part of a community of travellers is the very essence of all train voyages.

There’s a bittersweet feeling that comes over you when you finally have to disembark. You’ve this experience with these strangers and now you have to go back to the real world. Back to inboxes and ‘regrams and ‘liking’ posts. It’s comforting to know that the Indian Pacific is at Central Station most days and all you need to do is book a ticket to enjoy a little time out.