The Great Southern Railway

Perth and the Indian-Pacific
The last gallery we visited in Europe was Venice’s Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Imagine our surprise then, when we saw that the Art Gallery of Western Australia was holding an exhibition drawn from the same Guggenheim Collection. It and a visit to splendid King’s Park were the highlights of our visit to Perth. Another was a pleasant afternoon with cousin and ex-Saints footballer John Sydenham and his wife Jean. We can’t thank them enough for the trip down Perth’s coastline, at sunset, looking over the same Indian Ocean, in which two days before we had been tossing and turning, in cyclonic waves, wondering whether we’d ever reach Freemantle.

We are writing this Travel(b)logue entry, in our small room on the Indian Pacific train, just as the trees and an undulating terrain have returned, after something like a day crossing the Nullarbor Plain. This means we have reached Oodeal (site of Daisy Bates’ encampment). Earlier we stopped for re-watering in very hot Cook (home of five people). Last night we did a coach tour of Kalgoorlie and Boulder, and saw the pub where Eileen Joyce (one of Australia’s best musical exports) used to practice her Czerny scales, prior to her international career as a classical pianist. Hard to believe that a human nugget of gold came from such an unprepossessing circumstances.

A terrain without trees might sound like the ultimate in boredom but we would rank the Nullarbor Plain, possessing a hidden beauty far surpassing much that we’ve seen on the trip, as a window-gluing experience. And it does not stop there, the outback between the Barrier Range and Broken Hill possesses equal beauty. And to see the Menindee Lakes, full of water, at dusk, is sheer magic. But it does not stop there. The country between Bathurst and Lithgow has a majestic wonder but that is just a topographical prelude  to the Blue Mountains. Only the outer suburbs of Sydney, the ugliest part of one of the world’s most beautiful cities, disappoint. No wonder they designate the Indian Pacific as one of the Great Railway Journeys of the World: it’s great not just in distance but in quality too. Not to be missed, in our view. Hang the expense: start training!

Next stop Central Station, Sydney and then home. Flyingbyboat has landed.