Rail travel in Australia

Major and notable routes

Puffing Billy, Dandenong Ranges, Vic. Photo credit: Tourism Victoria

Rail travel in Australia

You can’t tell much about a country from its airports. But its railways? Well that’s a different matter…

The vastness of Australia only truly hits home when you’re trundling across it. The country’s railways are a great way to appreciate Australia’s beauty and are, in general, comfortable, good value and very, very long.

Three or six month passes can work out much cheaper than single tickets if you’re travelling around Australia. If you have the (sizeable) budget, a number of the following trains have sleeper options.

These are the major routes, along with some smaller notable ones:

The Ghan
Australia’s most famous train journey links Adelaide in the south, Alice Springs in the centre and Darwin in the north. There’s a romanticism about the Ghan. It’s certainly the grandest way to reach Uluru (Ayers Rock). The whole journey takes around 54 hours, including a four hour stop in Alice.

Indian Pacific
Australia’s longest train journey, the Indian Pacific links Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. At a whopping 4352km, this truly epic trip takes around 65 hours. There’s really no other experience like it.

The Overland
Links Adelaide and central Melbourne and runs three times a week. In almost anywhere but Australia its 828km length would be a national record.

The Southern Spirit
This outback journey connects Brisbane and Adelaide via Sydney and Melbourne. The views out the window are worth the fare alone.

CountryLink’s Xplorer and XPT
These trains link Sydney with Melbourne, Canberra, and Brisbane and run directly into the city centres several times daily.

V-Line
Victoria’s state rail network links many of its top destinations. The V-Line coach network covers many more of the less travelled routes.

The Prospector
Rail travel in Australian gold country. It takes around seven hours to cover the route between Perth and Kalgoorlie (via Merredin).

Queensland Railways
A busy network which links tourist favourites like the Sunshine and Gold Coasts with major cities (Brisbane and Cairns) and the centres of Charleville, Longreach, Mount Isa and Forsayth.

The Sunlander, operating between Brisbane and Cairns, is the network’s most renowned train. It’s been named as one of the world’s top 25 railway journeys. The relatively new ‘Tilt Train’ covers the same route as the Sunlander – only considerably faster.

Australind
Takes 2½ hours to run the 181km between Perth and Bunbury.

Avonlink
Links Perth with Northam, Toodyay and Midland. It takes around one and a half hours to cover the full 120 km.

The Gulflander
The Gulflander has been crossing the red, inhospitable plains of Gulf Country for over 120 years. It’s only a small train, but it’s a very special one, full of the romance of a frontier railway. The 140km trip takes you from Normanton to Croydon.