By John Wilson
Published
This book debunks the popular myth that The Ghan was named in 1929 to honour Afghan cameleers, revealing it instead as a 1960s marketing invention. While railway officials once silenced the crews who knew the true origins, this account restores the authentic, gritty history of Central Australian tourism. Through archival truth and rugged railway humour, it finally separates modern fiction from the legendary reality of the rails.
$95.00
GETTING TO THE TRUTH OF THE NAMING OF THE GHAN.
If you believe that The Ghan got its name when the railway to Alice Springs was opened in 1929 and was done out of respect for the Afghan cameleers who provided the transport to the outback before the railway …. you probably believe that the moon is made of green cheese….and the earth is flat.
The fact is that in the 1960s the Commonwealth Railways started to see that there was business to be had in promoting tourism to Central Australia. But they needed tourist literature and produced a brochure. Everyone knew that the train to Alice Springs was called The Ghan but none of the staff who worked on the Commonwealth Railways HQ at Port Augusta had any knowledge of how the name had originated. If they had got in their car and driven the 25 miles to Quorn and started poking around some of the old engine crews they would have heard the story, for everything about The Ghan is steeped in mythology and legend. And so, an enterprising clerical officer came up with the story, and his version of history had a semblance of reality about it. It was not questioned and soon became the official history and when those few old engine crews at Quorn protested, they were warned that their continued employment would be at risk if they continued. This book tells the story of the true and false stories of the naming of The Ghan.
One of heroes of The Ghan story was Des Smith who was Chief Civil Engineer of Commonwealth Railways. He has told stories of GETTING THE EGGS TO THE STRANDED DINING CAR and of the dunny that was the coldest crap in South Australia. And did you know that the trail was blazed of Central Australia’s tourism by Harold Clapp, the colourful Chief Commissioner of the Victorian Railways, who also gave us The Spirit of Progress. He had done it with a fleet of Dodge tourer cars. that had been railed to the then terminus of Oodnadatta and that was before there was a petrol bowser in Alice Springs.
There have been a few books written about The Ghan but this one is different. I close this commentary with an audio file of DEB TRIBE OF THE ABC who tells us the true story of the naming of The Ghan.
