In the extremes of Australian weather conditions, riding the remnants of Australian passenger rail services is a delightful experience. My experiences with the Prospector on the 600 km journey from Perth to Kalgoorlie ended some years ago with a mid-summer drenching as the remnants of a Kimberley cyclone headed south across the Outback. That is one of the risks of alternatives to private motor vehicles.
The fare for the 600 km journey is an affordable $101 or $50.50 for concessional tickets. This service is comparable to car travel times of about seven hours for the long journey. There is a bonus of buffet service and on demand entertainment services with the latest movies.
Unlike the Eastern States, affordable passenger rail services cover only a few destinations in WA. There are passenger rail services to Bunbury with bus connections to Albany over 420 kilometers. Connections north of Perth to Geraldton are totally by Transwa Buses over a similar distance. A more intricate network is available in the most highly populated parts of WA.
In the Eastern States, NSW and Victoria excel in the provision of regional services which extend interstate by train to Melbourne and connecting buses from rail hubs to the Gold Coast, Mildura and Adelaide. NSW also offers an affordable Discovery Pass to over 365 destinations with access to buffet services to pass the time away.
Despite the current dominance of the LNP in regional Queensland, there is no real attempt to apply the NSW Travel model here.
Queensland has its Discovery Pass at affordable price levels but it lacks the connecting bus services available in NSW and Victoria:
Queensland lacks the connecting bus services of NSW and Victoria. Some of these services could be provided by commercial providers as seats would be available to connect far-western services and the public sector costs might only need to apply to new routes like Brisbane to the Whitsundays via regional centres like Roma and Emerald which are served by existing rail services. The bus connection from Roma to Emerald would pass through the Carnarvon Gorge National Park.
Well subsidized Cairns-based bus services head off to Normanton and Karumba three times a week with an even greater frequency to Cooktown by coastal and inland routes. The limestone caves at Chillagoe are accessible once a week. Here in the winter sun and pleasant transitional seasons, visitors can enjoy the hospitality of the accessible Outback within two hundred kilometres of Cairns. With government subsidies, the Trans North Bus service could be extended to Mt. Isa during the tourist seasons with opportunities to stay at outback centres en route.
At an additional cost, connecting commercial and tourist bus networks could be added to the Queensland Discovery Pass.
The Chillagoe landscape is a delight to visitors during the cooler months with opportunities for walks to the limestone caverns, the dismantled smelter site and exotic settings in the savanna bushland:
The Call of the Limestone Caverns
The Ruins of the Chillagoe State Smelter
An enterprising state government in Queensland might want to invest in environmental centres where students from across North Queensland could enjoy the limestone topography and historic sites which could be open to tourists during school holiday seasons in the cooler months. The Savannahlander tourist train requires a local bus connection from Almaden to several friendly accommodation facilities in Chillagoe which is adjacent to historic outback centres like Palmerville and Laura which require 4WD access. Exploring beyond the well-travelled Cairns to Kuranda Gorge Railway should have a political future if more connecting bus services were available. Rail freight services to Chillagoe for local minerals and marble have been closed for over thirty years.
In the Cloncurry District of North-West Queensland, historic mine sites like the Wee MacGregor Mine and other deserted settlements are off the tourist trail. Some of these sites areincluded in the video of the Ballara Heritage Trail. There are advantages in taking 4WD tours from Cloncurry. Many historic sites are on privately owned grazing lands:
Affordable travel to exotic locations should be a national priority. More subsidies for connecting bus networks help to save the remnants of affordable regional rail services which used to carry Motorail vans to transport hubs in Longreach, Townsville and Cairns from Brisbane to give tourists the best options for private and public transport over great and sometimes tedious distances.
Spirit of the Outback: Australia’s Affordable Luxury Train
Denis Bright (pictured) is a financial member of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA). Denis is committed to consensus-building on the critical issues raised in each article. Your comments on this and related articles can be recorded on theaimn.net site.
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Most eastern states. Passenger rail does not exist in Tassie.
I still remember vividly my first visit to Chillagoe. We drove up from Cairns to meet a mate who was doing an environmental study on mine impacts. Rolling up the main street was interrupted by a pair of women who were having a knock-down, drag-out fight in front of the pub. It took at least five minutes until the road was clear enough to proceed safely.
Good times.
Travel options for all seasons .
Unfortunately ,Tasmania and South Australia have no regular regional trains.
Safe and affordable travel helps everyone to chill out and to have alternatives to tedious long-distance car travel.
Thanks for an interesting summary of local travel options in Australia and public trsnsport options.
Riding the rails is good therapy provided there are bus connections at the end of the tracks
Howard’s privatization had not brought affordability to Australian regional transport. Why do the regions continue to support the LNP and One Nation? Why are the regions so inclined to vote against their self-interest and progressive change?
Changes to the Westlander timetable should invite travel up the Toowoomba Range in both directions with an overnight option in Roma as a hub for new bus services to the Carnarvon Gorge, Emerald and the Whitsundays. Toowoomba could also become a financial hub for interstate buses to connect with NSW trains from New England the next day to Sydney.
Extremes of politics between Liberal & Labour is not something to be tolerated or accepted and way past time that we all sought to do better in terms of actually giving the least more in terms of ability to live.
Rail Services here in regional Ballarat are a disgrace, have been here for three years and barely a month goes by that there are not rail shuttles between Ballarat and Bacchus Marsh, poor seating, no buffet as you have to rely on the under resourced kiosk – greasy spoon essentially – and understaffing, no more than one person at any given time, and the latest insult is no local buses after 3.00pm however go out to the south-east and it’s a different story and much better services, livery, just on metro alone!
I’d love the chance to travel by rail for holidays, however given that all Governments treat mature aged people as a nuisance and non-existent and last in the que for anything e.g. it’s two days to Christmas and my usual payment is due Christmas Day and had hoped that it would be paid today!
Nothing doing, it’s been left to tomorrow which means getting shopping at the last minute, and maybe getting what you can post everyone else being able to make better choices, irrespective of the fact that I had planned ahead to accommodate changed payment dates; also means that the person who decided to help me had to change their plans as well, concertina effect.
So as usual, Politicians and the systems look after themselves first, the rest are mere incidentals. This is how resentment is built, incrementally over time.
A good place to beat the WA heatwave on the Prospector with a beer and a snack on the Kalgoorlie-Esperance Journey by Transwa by train and connecting bus with a journey back through Albany. Transwa has the state well covered closer to Perth.
Public transport must be affordable: It is a joke that regional trains in Queensland run with few passengers: The Crisafulli Government is a total failure in its commitment to the regions and the need for integrated bus services to connect with trains
Love the remnants of our trains with their on board restaurants
Two tilt trains left for Rockhampton on Sunday from Brisbane. The first train from Brisbane had 180 patrons or about 70 per cent capacity. The outreach of these services and patronage would be improved with more connecting commercial buses which take on rail passengers. With its substantial majority the LNP State Government could do more in the provision of affordable travel to and from the regions. Empty seats mean higher fares compared to air travel. Rail should become more competitive to survive into the 2030s. NSW and Victoria have better co-ordinated regional services which operate interstate and mobilise existing commercial bus services.
Regional rail has a long history in Queensland. It is immortalized in the Paul Kelly lyrics about the now defunct Sunlander which fell victim to the LNP’s budget cuts in 2014 with the loss of motorail vans for long-distance transport of cars.
Maintaining the remnants of rail services to Inland Queensland is a challenging task.
Coastal tilt train services have better patronage on coastal routes and were all Labor initiatives. Some services carry 200 passengers with a full capacity of around 300.
The quite luxurious Spirit of the Outback left Brisbane tonight for Longreach with about thirty passengers.
The more spartan Westlander service to Charleville had around ten passengers from Brisbane.
Rationalising these services with a focus on tourism requires connecting buses from a Roma transport hub to Central Queensland and also to Inland NSW for tourists would attract tourists during the cooler months. Trains need to operate in daylight hours on the Brisbane-Roma sectors.
The connecting bus services could be normal commercial services operated by Greyhound or Premier Buses or any other bus line which also leave from the vicinity of Platform 10 at Roma Street.
Passengers could leave the train at Roma and stay overnight.
Some passengers like rail travel and opportunities to sample regional foods which could be delivered to the trains en route from local restaurants with payment by credit cards from menu lists available on the trains.
QR Travel Service is simply not geared up for tourism and goes not offer online bookings for buses, accommodation or tours to scenic localities like the Carnarvon Gorge.
Nothing has happened in regional rail transport since the Crisafulli Government was elected in 2024. Where is the promised future for Queenslanders?
Restore rail services to Chillagoe during the tourist season at least as a hub for 4WD tours in the Cairns Outback: This should be an environmental studies site of Queensland and Australia wide tourists