In March 2021, with COVID-19 restrictions considerably eased, Barbara and I boarded The Ghan to traverse the continent from north to south, from the tropical 'Top End' of the Northern Territory, down through the heart of Australia to reach Adelaide, the South Australian state capital: a journey of almost 3,000 km over 2.5 days. At Adelaide we boarded the newly reinstated Overland, a daylight service onwards to Melbourne.

Completion of a new 831-km stretch of standard-gauge track in 1980 connected Alice Springs with Adelaide, replacing the original, flood-prone railway to the east, and I made this overnight journey, northbound, in 1998. Back in 1911 the Commonwealth committed itself to complete the transcontinental rail link from southern to northern Australia; this vision was realised almost a century later with the completion of the Alice Springs to Darwin track.

The Ghan today is an upscale tourist product, packaged and priced accordingly, with admirably high standards of service and comfort, plus sightseeing excursions en route: a veritable cruise on wheels. Carriage 'Q', our home for two nights, was located nearly one kilometre down the platfrom from the twin locomotives.

Back in 1970 I was fortunate to experience The Ghan in its original no-frills incarnation, the 1929 outback workhorse - named for the 19th-century cameleers who first created supply lines across the Outback - which travelled an earlier, flood-prone, route via Oodnadatta and Marree, well to the east of the present-day tracks. Veteran locomotives and rolling stock from that era now operate excursion trains on the Pichi Richi Railway in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia.

Most images were captured with Nikon D300 in RAW format, earlier ones as 35mm transparency.