the Ghan

The Ghan is the legendary Australian train
which travels 2,979 km from Adelaide to Alice Springs to Darwin

Check it out !

by John Borthwick

A train that runs across the flattest, oldest, driest, hottest, dustiest, most deserted bit of earth on Earth - Central Australia - and names itself after a bloke from Afghanistan, must have a tale to tell...

"But who gave the train its name?"

The most reliable story says that in 1923, when the first train from Adelaide to Oodnadatta pulled into an intermediate station, Quorn, at sunset, an Afghan jumped from the almost empty train and strode to the Mecca end of the platform to say his prayers. The engine driver joked to several onlookers, "Since he's the only passenger on this train, we'll have to call it ‘the Afghan Express'." The name stuck and like everything unnecessary in this desert, its superfluous syllables were soon sloughed off. The train, too, became 'The Ghan'.