Australia · Window guide
Which side of The Ghan should you sit on?
A window guide to The Ghan (2,979 km, 62 narrated stories), built from the same route data the Rail Journeys app uses to trigger its narration.
Operated by Journey Beyond. Rail Journeys of a Lifetime is an independent audio guide and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any railway operator.
The short answer
- Toward Darwin: the narrated sights are split between the two sides of the train — sit where you like and let the narration tell you which way to look for each one.
- Toward Adelaide: the narrated sights are split between the two sides of the train — sit where you like and let the narration tell you which way to look for each one.
The app narrates each sight automatically as you reach it and says which side to look — this page is the same route, in order, for planning. "Left" and "right" are relative to the direction of travel.
Distances in the tables are measured along the route geometry from Adelaide Parklands Terminal and are approximate; the headline distance is the operator's published figure.
Before you board
- Off-train experiences: Marla (sunrise, northbound only), Alice Springs and Katherine in both directions, and Manguri for Coober Pedy southbound only. Kulgera and Tennant Creek are passed without a passenger stop.
Toward Darwin
| Distance from start | Sight | Look | What you'll hear about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 km (0 mi) | 🚉 Adelaide Parklands Terminal | — | Station stop |
| 0 km (0 mi) | The Ghan: A Train Named for the Cameleers | Either side | This train has one of the great names in railway history — The Ghan. |
| 30 km (19 mi) | Leaving Adelaide: The Last Green | Either side | We pull north out of Adelaide through the last comfortable country we'll see for a very long time: the wheat and barley fields of the mid-no |
| 181 km (112 mi) | The Saltbush Plains | Either side | The green crops are giving way now to a low, silvery-grey scrub, stretching flat to the horizon — and you'll be seeing it for hundreds of ki |
| 305 km (189 mi) | The Flinders Ranges: The Oldest Hills | Either side | Off to the east, early in the journey, watch for a long line of weathered red mountains — the Flinders Ranges. |
| 312 km (194 mi) | Port Augusta: Where the Line Began | Left side | At the top of the gulf, the train passes Port Augusta — an easy place to overlook, and where this whole adventure started. |
| 321 km (199 mi) | The Old Ghan: The Line That Kept Washing Away | Either side | Spare a thought, as we roll along smoothly, for the first Ghan. |
| 415 km (258 mi) | The Water Under the Desert | Either side | That lone steel windmill, turning slowly over the saltbush, is the one piece of machinery that made this whole dry country liveable. |
| 430 km (267 mi) | Woomera: The Secret Range | Either side | Out across this empty saltbush plain, mostly invisible from the train, lies one of the largest closed military areas on Earth — the Woomera |
| 464 km (288 mi) | Stuart: The Man Who Crossed First | Either side | Almost everything out here — this railway, the highway beside it, the old telegraph — follows one man's footsteps: John McDouall Stuart. |
| 540 km (336 mi) | Lake Hart: White Fire in the Red | Either side | Watch the red desert ahead suddenly give way to something startling — a vast, flat sheet of dazzling white, so bright it hurts to look at, r |
| 620 km (385 mi) | The 126-Year Dream | Either side | Look how far and how empty this is — and then consider how long people dreamed of putting a railway clean across it. |
| 721 km (448 mi) | Tarcoola: The Parting of the Ways | Either side | This lonely siding, Tarcoola, is one of the great crossroads of Australian railways, even though almost no one lives here. |
| 724 km (450 mi) | The Gibber: Reading the Stony Desert | Left side | Look closely at the ground sliding past — in places it isn't sand at all, but a tight pavement of dark, shiny stones, packed together as if |
| 807 km (502 mi) | The Mulga | Either side | The low, grey-green scrub thickening around us now is mostly mulga — a hardy little acacia that is the backbone of the dry inland. |
| 852 km (529 mi) | Kangaroos & Emus | Either side | As the light softens toward evening, start watching the open country for movement — because this is when the outback comes alive. |
| 860 km (534 mi) | The Dingo Fence | Either side | Somewhere out in this emptiness, the train crosses a fence — and not just any fence. |
| 913 km (567 mi) | Manguri: The Turnoff for the Underground Town | Either side | The train pauses at a tiny siding in the middle of nowhere — Manguri. |
| 981 km (610 mi) | The Rivers That Never Reach the Sea | Either side | Here's something strange about the country we're crossing: its rivers go nowhere. |
| 1104 km (686 mi) | The Desert in Bloom | Either side | If you've caught this train in the right season — a few weeks after good rain — you may be riding through a miracle: the desert in flower. |
| 1132 km (703 mi) | 🚉 Marla | — | Off-train experience (northbound sunrise stop) |
| 1134 km (704 mi) | Marla: Lifeline of the Highway | Either side | Out here, a roadhouse isn't a convenience — it's survival. |
| 1260 km (783 mi) | The Red Dunes: The Longest in the World | Either side | Watch the red country roll past — long, low ridges of deep red sand, and notice how they tend to run the same way, like the swell of a froze |
| 1288 km (800 mi) | Into the Northern Territory | Either side | Unmarked by anything but a sign on the distant highway, we cross a line on the map about here: out of South Australia, and into the Northern |
| 1303 km (809 mi) | *Kulgera* | — | Passes through — not a passenger stop |
| 1303 km (809 mi) | The Red Centre: The Dead Heart | Either side | Look out at the colour of the ground. |
| 1308 km (813 mi) | Kulgera: First Pub in the Territory | Either side | Just over the border, the tiny settlement of Kulgera proudly calls itself the first pub in the Northern Territory — or the last, depending w |
| 1372 km (853 mi) | The Desert Oaks | Either side | Out here grows a tree that seems to come in two completely different shapes — and yet they're the very same species. |
| 1450 km (901 mi) | The Desert Light | Either side | Whatever else you do on this crossing, watch the desert at the edges of the day — dawn and dusk. |
| 1454 km (904 mi) | The Finke: The Oldest River on Earth | Either side | The dry, sandy riverbed we cross here looks like any other out here — but it may be the oldest river on the planet. |
| 1515 km (941 mi) | The Spinifex Rings | Either side | Look at the spiky clumps of grass dotting the red sand — that's spinifex, and it covers almost a third of this entire continent. |
| 1540 km (957 mi) | The Dry Rivers & the Ghost Gums | Either side | Watch for the rivers out here — and don't expect water. |
| 1553 km (965 mi) | Heavitree Gap: The Sacred Door to Alice | Either side | Watch ahead as the long red wall of the MacDonnell Ranges rises across the whole horizon — and then look for the single narrow notch in it t |
| 1557 km (968 mi) | 🚉 Alice Springs | — | Station stop (off-train experiences) |
| 1557 km (968 mi) | Alice Springs: The Town in the Middle | Either side | Halfway through the whole journey, almost exactly in the dead centre of the continent, we reach Alice Springs. |
| 1589 km (987 mi) | Crossing the Tropic of Capricorn | Either side | Right about here we slip across an invisible but important line: the Tropic of Capricorn. |
| 1602 km (995 mi) | Aileron: The Giant on the Hill | Either side | Watch the hilltops near the little roadhouse settlement of Aileron, because something enormous is standing up there: a steel statue of an Ab |
| 1730 km (1075 mi) | Ti Tree: Grapes in the Red Sand | Either side | It seems impossible, but the country around the tiny settlement of Ti Tree grows fruit — table grapes, mangoes, melons, even wine — right he |
| 1750 km (1087 mi) | The Overland Telegraph: The Wire that Beat the Distance | Either side | Near the middle of the journey we reach Alice Springs — and the reason a town exists here at all, in the dead centre of a desert, is a singl |
| 1755 km (1090 mi) | Central Mount Stuart: The Dead Centre | Either side | Off to the side rises a modest, flat-topped hill that marks the symbolic heart of the continent: Central Mount Stuart. |
| 1808 km (1123 mi) | Barrow Creek: The Hard Frontier | Either side | The old stone telegraph station at Barrow Creek, one of the repeater stations that kept the great wire alive, also marks one of the saddest |
| 1894 km (1177 mi) | Wycliffe Well: UFO Capital | Either side | Keep an eye out for a roadhouse with a sense of humour: Wycliffe Well, which cheerfully calls itself the UFO capital of Australia. |
| 1898 km (1179 mi) | The Outback Night Sky | Either side | If you're awake as night falls out here, do one thing: look up. |
| 1915 km (1190 mi) | The Camels and the Eagle | Right side | Scan the red country as it slides past, and you might just see two very different outback creatures. |
| 1934 km (1202 mi) | Karlu Karlu: The Sacred Country Off to the East | Context | As we cross the country south of Tennant Creek, hold a thought for a place off to the east — you may not pick it out from the train, but it' |
| 2026 km (1259 mi) | *Tennant Creek* | — | Railway operating point — the train does not stop for passengers |
| 2026 km (1259 mi) | Deep Time: The Oldest Living Culture | Right side | As the country rolls past, hold one number in your mind, because it changes how you see all of it. |
| 2030 km (1261 mi) | Tennant Creek: Gold in the Desert | Either side | Out here in the dry heart of the continent lies Tennant Creek, site of Australia's last great gold rush — in the nineteen-thirties, in the d |
| 2041 km (1268 mi) | Three Ways: The Great Crossroads | Either side | Near Tennant Creek the highway hits one of the loneliest important junctions in Australia: the Three Ways. |
| 2076 km (1290 mi) | Attack Creek: Where Stuart Turned Back | Either side | The unremarkable creek-bed near here carries a name heavy with history: Attack Creek. |
| 2158 km (1341 mi) | The Barkly: The Sea of Grass | Either side | For hour after hour the country here runs flat to the horizon in every direction — but look closely and you'll see it isn't all red sand. |
| 2190 km (1361 mi) | Renner Springs: The Invisible Border | Either side | Somewhere around the little stop of Renner Springs, the country quietly changes its mind. |
| 2300 km (1429 mi) | Newcastle Waters: Ghost Town of the Drovers | Either side | The almost-deserted little settlement out here, Newcastle Waters, was once a roaring hub of one of the toughest trades on Earth: droving. |
| 2380 km (1479 mi) | Daly Waters: The Outback Airfield | Either side | In the scrub out here sits the tiny settlement of Daly Waters, with a famous old pub and an unlikely place in aviation history. |
| 2450 km (1522 mi) | From Red to Green | Either side | Somewhere in the last day, watch the land change — the red giving way, the scrub thickening, the air growing heavy and damp. |
| 2493 km (1549 mi) | Larrimah: The Town of Eleven | Either side | Blink and you'll miss Larrimah — and that's rather the point. |
| 2543 km (1580 mi) | The Road Trains | Either side | Keep an eye on the highway running near the line, and sooner or later you'll meet one of the giants of the outback: a road train. |
| 2586 km (1607 mi) | The Wet and the Dry | Either side | This lush green country up here runs on just two seasons — and they could hardly be more different. |
| 2591 km (1610 mi) | Mataranka: The Springs at the Edge of the Tropics | Either side | As the desert finally gives way to green near the Top End, the train passes Mataranka — and underground here, something rare in this dry cou |
| 2644 km (1643 mi) | The Termite Cathedrals | Either side | Out in the green savanna now, watch for what look like thousands of strange reddish towers standing in the grass — some taller than a person |
| 2651 km (1647 mi) | Cutta Cutta: Caves Beneath the Desert | Either side | Beneath the dry country near Katherine lies a hidden world: the Cutta Cutta caves, a maze of limestone passages carved out by water over mil |
| 2671 km (1660 mi) | 🚉 Katherine | — | Station stop (off-train experiences) |
| 2671 km (1660 mi) | Nitmiluk: Out of the Red, into the Green | Context | Look how the world has changed outside. |
| 2704 km (1680 mi) | Crocodile Country | Either side | You're now in the realm of one of the most fearsome animals alive: the saltwater crocodile. |
| 2719 km (1689 mi) | Edith Falls: Water in the Stone Country | Either side | The dry stone country up here hides a reward you'd never expect after three days of red sand: waterfalls. |
| 2763 km (1717 mi) | Pine Creek: The Gold at the End | Left side | Near the end of the journey, in the tropical north, the small town of Pine Creek slips by — once one of the busiest places in the Territory. |
| 2881 km (1790 mi) | Adelaide River: The Forgotten Front | Either side | The quiet town of Adelaide River holds a piece of history many Australians have forgotten. |
| 2970 km (1845 mi) | Darwin: The Tropical End of the Line | Either side | We've reached the far end of the continent — Darwin, capital of the Top End, closer to Indonesia than to Sydney, and a world away from the r |
| 2979 km (1851 mi) | 🚉 Darwin | — | Station stop |
Toward Adelaide
| Distance from start | Sight | Look | What you'll hear about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 km (1 mi) | 🚉 Darwin | — | Station stop |
| 10 km (6 mi) | Darwin: The Tropical End of the Line | Either side | We've reached the far end of the continent — Darwin, capital of the Top End, closer to Indonesia than to Sydney, and a world away from the r |
| 100 km (62 mi) | Adelaide River: The Forgotten Front | Either side | The quiet town of Adelaide River holds a piece of history many Australians have forgotten. |
| 217 km (135 mi) | Pine Creek: The Gold at the End | Right side | Near the end of the journey, in the tropical north, the small town of Pine Creek slips by — once one of the busiest places in the Territory. |
| 261 km (162 mi) | Edith Falls: Water in the Stone Country | Either side | The dry stone country up here hides a reward you'd never expect after three days of red sand: waterfalls. |
| 277 km (172 mi) | Crocodile Country | Either side | You're now in the realm of one of the most fearsome animals alive: the saltwater crocodile. |
| 309 km (192 mi) | Nitmiluk: Out of the Red, into the Green | Context | Look how the world has changed outside. |
| 309 km (192 mi) | 🚉 Katherine | — | Station stop (off-train experiences) |
| 329 km (205 mi) | Cutta Cutta: Caves Beneath the Desert | Either side | Beneath the dry country near Katherine lies a hidden world: the Cutta Cutta caves, a maze of limestone passages carved out by water over mil |
| 336 km (209 mi) | The Termite Cathedrals | Either side | Out in the green savanna now, watch for what look like thousands of strange reddish towers standing in the grass — some taller than a person |
| 390 km (242 mi) | Mataranka: The Springs at the Edge of the Tropics | Either side | As the desert finally gives way to green near the Top End, the train passes Mataranka — and underground here, something rare in this dry cou |
| 394 km (245 mi) | The Wet and the Dry | Either side | This lush green country up here runs on just two seasons — and they could hardly be more different. |
| 438 km (272 mi) | The Road Trains | Either side | Keep an eye on the highway running near the line, and sooner or later you'll meet one of the giants of the outback: a road train. |
| 487 km (303 mi) | Larrimah: The Town of Eleven | Either side | Blink and you'll miss Larrimah — and that's rather the point. |
| 530 km (330 mi) | From Red to Green | Either side | Somewhere in the last day, watch the land change — the red giving way, the scrub thickening, the air growing heavy and damp. |
| 600 km (373 mi) | Daly Waters: The Outback Airfield | Either side | In the scrub out here sits the tiny settlement of Daly Waters, with a famous old pub and an unlikely place in aviation history. |
| 680 km (423 mi) | Newcastle Waters: Ghost Town of the Drovers | Either side | The almost-deserted little settlement out here, Newcastle Waters, was once a roaring hub of one of the toughest trades on Earth: droving. |
| 791 km (491 mi) | Renner Springs: The Invisible Border | Either side | Somewhere around the little stop of Renner Springs, the country quietly changes its mind. |
| 823 km (511 mi) | The Barkly: The Sea of Grass | Either side | For hour after hour the country here runs flat to the horizon in every direction — but look closely and you'll see it isn't all red sand. |
| 904 km (562 mi) | Attack Creek: Where Stuart Turned Back | Either side | The unremarkable creek-bed near here carries a name heavy with history: Attack Creek. |
| 939 km (584 mi) | Three Ways: The Great Crossroads | Either side | Near Tennant Creek the highway hits one of the loneliest important junctions in Australia: the Three Ways. |
| 950 km (591 mi) | Tennant Creek: Gold in the Desert | Either side | Out here in the dry heart of the continent lies Tennant Creek, site of Australia's last great gold rush — in the nineteen-thirties, in the d |
| 955 km (593 mi) | Deep Time: The Oldest Living Culture | Left side | As the country rolls past, hold one number in your mind, because it changes how you see all of it. |
| 955 km (593 mi) | *Tennant Creek* | — | Railway operating point — the train does not stop for passengers |
| 1046 km (650 mi) | Karlu Karlu: The Sacred Country Off to the East | Context | As we cross the country south of Tennant Creek, hold a thought for a place off to the east — you may not pick it out from the train, but it' |
| 1066 km (662 mi) | The Camels and the Eagle | Left side | Scan the red country as it slides past, and you might just see two very different outback creatures. |
| 1082 km (673 mi) | The Outback Night Sky | Either side | If you're awake as night falls out here, do one thing: look up. |
| 1086 km (675 mi) | Wycliffe Well: UFO Capital | Either side | Keep an eye out for a roadhouse with a sense of humour: Wycliffe Well, which cheerfully calls itself the UFO capital of Australia. |
| 1173 km (729 mi) | Barrow Creek: The Hard Frontier | Either side | The old stone telegraph station at Barrow Creek, one of the repeater stations that kept the great wire alive, also marks one of the saddest |
| 1226 km (762 mi) | Central Mount Stuart: The Dead Centre | Either side | Off to the side rises a modest, flat-topped hill that marks the symbolic heart of the continent: Central Mount Stuart. |
| 1230 km (765 mi) | The Overland Telegraph: The Wire that Beat the Distance | Either side | Near the middle of the journey we reach Alice Springs — and the reason a town exists here at all, in the dead centre of a desert, is a singl |
| 1250 km (777 mi) | Ti Tree: Grapes in the Red Sand | Either side | It seems impossible, but the country around the tiny settlement of Ti Tree grows fruit — table grapes, mangoes, melons, even wine — right he |
| 1379 km (857 mi) | Aileron: The Giant on the Hill | Either side | Watch the hilltops near the little roadhouse settlement of Aileron, because something enormous is standing up there: a steel statue of an Ab |
| 1392 km (865 mi) | Crossing the Tropic of Capricorn | Either side | Right about here we slip across an invisible but important line: the Tropic of Capricorn. |
| 1423 km (884 mi) | Alice Springs: The Town in the Middle | Either side | Halfway through the whole journey, almost exactly in the dead centre of the continent, we reach Alice Springs. |
| 1423 km (884 mi) | 🚉 Alice Springs | — | Station stop (off-train experiences) |
| 1427 km (887 mi) | Heavitree Gap: The Sacred Door to Alice | Either side | Watch ahead as the long red wall of the MacDonnell Ranges rises across the whole horizon — and then look for the single narrow notch in it t |
| 1440 km (895 mi) | The Dry Rivers & the Ghost Gums | Either side | Watch for the rivers out here — and don't expect water. |
| 1465 km (910 mi) | The Spinifex Rings | Either side | Look at the spiky clumps of grass dotting the red sand — that's spinifex, and it covers almost a third of this entire continent. |
| 1526 km (948 mi) | The Finke: The Oldest River on Earth | Either side | The dry, sandy riverbed we cross here looks like any other out here — but it may be the oldest river on the planet. |
| 1530 km (951 mi) | The Desert Light | Either side | Whatever else you do on this crossing, watch the desert at the edges of the day — dawn and dusk. |
| 1608 km (999 mi) | The Desert Oaks | Either side | Out here grows a tree that seems to come in two completely different shapes — and yet they're the very same species. |
| 1672 km (1039 mi) | Kulgera: First Pub in the Territory | Either side | Just over the border, the tiny settlement of Kulgera proudly calls itself the first pub in the Northern Territory — or the last, depending w |
| 1678 km (1043 mi) | The Red Centre: The Dead Heart | Either side | Look out at the colour of the ground. |
| 1678 km (1043 mi) | *Kulgera* | — | Passes through — not a passenger stop |
| 1692 km (1052 mi) | Into the Northern Territory | Either side | Unmarked by anything but a sign on the distant highway, we cross a line on the map about here: out of South Australia, and into the Northern |
| 1720 km (1069 mi) | The Red Dunes: The Longest in the World | Either side | Watch the red country roll past — long, low ridges of deep red sand, and notice how they tend to run the same way, like the swell of a froze |
| 1847 km (1148 mi) | Marla: Lifeline of the Highway | Either side | Out here, a roadhouse isn't a convenience — it's survival. |
| 1877 km (1166 mi) | The Desert in Bloom | Either side | If you've caught this train in the right season — a few weeks after good rain — you may be riding through a miracle: the desert in flower. |
| 1999 km (1242 mi) | The Rivers That Never Reach the Sea | Either side | Here's something strange about the country we're crossing: its rivers go nowhere. |
| 2054 km (1276 mi) | 🚉 Manguri (for Coober Pedy) | — | Off-train experience (southbound stop for Coober Pedy) |
| 2068 km (1285 mi) | Manguri: The Turnoff for the Underground Town | Either side | The train pauses at a tiny siding in the middle of nowhere — Manguri. |
| 2120 km (1318 mi) | The Dingo Fence | Either side | Somewhere out in this emptiness, the train crosses a fence — and not just any fence. |
| 2129 km (1323 mi) | Kangaroos & Emus | Either side | As the light softens toward evening, start watching the open country for movement — because this is when the outback comes alive. |
| 2173 km (1350 mi) | The Mulga | Either side | The low, grey-green scrub thickening around us now is mostly mulga — a hardy little acacia that is the backbone of the dry inland. |
| 2257 km (1402 mi) | The Gibber: Reading the Stony Desert | Right side | Look closely at the ground sliding past — in places it isn't sand at all, but a tight pavement of dark, shiny stones, packed together as if |
| 2260 km (1404 mi) | Tarcoola: The Parting of the Ways | Either side | This lonely siding, Tarcoola, is one of the great crossroads of Australian railways, even though almost no one lives here. |
| 2360 km (1467 mi) | The 126-Year Dream | Either side | Look how far and how empty this is — and then consider how long people dreamed of putting a railway clean across it. |
| 2440 km (1516 mi) | Lake Hart: White Fire in the Red | Either side | Watch the red desert ahead suddenly give way to something startling — a vast, flat sheet of dazzling white, so bright it hurts to look at, r |
| 2517 km (1564 mi) | Stuart: The Man Who Crossed First | Either side | Almost everything out here — this railway, the highway beside it, the old telegraph — follows one man's footsteps: John McDouall Stuart. |
| 2550 km (1585 mi) | Woomera: The Secret Range | Either side | Out across this empty saltbush plain, mostly invisible from the train, lies one of the largest closed military areas on Earth — the Woomera |
| 2565 km (1594 mi) | The Water Under the Desert | Either side | That lone steel windmill, turning slowly over the saltbush, is the one piece of machinery that made this whole dry country liveable. |
| 2660 km (1653 mi) | The Old Ghan: The Line That Kept Washing Away | Either side | Spare a thought, as we roll along smoothly, for the first Ghan. |
| 2668 km (1658 mi) | Port Augusta: Where the Line Began | Right side | At the top of the gulf, the train passes Port Augusta — an easy place to overlook, and where this whole adventure started. |
| 2676 km (1663 mi) | The Flinders Ranges: The Oldest Hills | Either side | Off to the east, early in the journey, watch for a long line of weathered red mountains — the Flinders Ranges. |
| 2800 km (1740 mi) | The Saltbush Plains | Either side | The green crops are giving way now to a low, silvery-grey scrub, stretching flat to the horizon — and you'll be seeing it for hundreds of ki |
| 2951 km (1833 mi) | Leaving Adelaide: The Last Green | Either side | We pull north out of Adelaide through the last comfortable country we'll see for a very long time: the wheat and barley fields of the mid-no |
| 2980 km (1852 mi) | The Ghan: A Train Named for the Cameleers | Either side | This train has one of the great names in railway history — The Ghan. |
| 2980 km (1852 mi) | 🚉 Adelaide Parklands Terminal | — | Station stop |
Hear it as you pass
Every sight above has a fully narrated, source-checked story in the Rail Journeys app, triggered by GPS at the right moment — and it works with no signal. Get The Ghan guide