Melbourne to Adelaide

Saturday 24th January

We really did rise early this morning - at 05:00 - in order to check in at Southern Cross station for our train to Adelaide before seven o'clock.  Peta kindly drove us and we arrived in time for a light breakfast before we said our fond farewells.  

There were only two scheduled stops along the route - we just passed through the other settlements.

The train was quite noisy and jangly, but our "premium" seats were very comfortable with loads of leg room.

Leaving Melbourne and the built up area, we passed through some market gardening and saw some livestock, chiefly cattle.

The train stopped at Geelong North, the second city of Victoria.  For the last fifty plus years, I've thought it was pronounced GEElong, as that's what we were told when studying geography at secondary school, but a couple of months ago I was advised it is GeeLONG (with the stress on the second syllable). 

Geelong started as a sheep grazing area in 1836 and as a port for shipping out wool and wheat, before developing further during the gold rush.  

The landscape quickly became scrubby, the almost treeless plains stretching for miles, with poor pasture mainly for small flocks of sheep.  

We passed Ararat, a small farming centre which Lonely Planet describes as having 'A brief flirtation with gold' in 1857. 

About three hours out of Melbourne, lines of trees appeared, presumably as windbreaks, and soon the density of trees increased a little.  Stawell was also a small mining town, but now its biggest claim to fame is apparently the Stawell Gift, Australia's richest foot race, which attracts 20,000 visitors every Easter.  

Around here there were more cattle, and also some arable farming.  

Horsham seemed to be a little bigger, with an art gallery and botanic gardens.

We wondered why we stopped at Dimboola for about ten minutes, as the town has less than 2,000. It transpired that a new train driver takes over here.  

Most of the journey, certainly the first half, was made through plains, although there were some mountains in the distance as we left Melbourne and then the Grampians, now a National Park, at the south west end of the Great Dividing Range near Ararat and Stawell.  After Dimboola the land became slightly more undulating.  

Nhill is the centre of a wheat and oat growing area.  It apparently has the largest grain silo in the Southern Hemisphere.  Nhill is a small town, unfortunately so small that I missed it while walking up to the end of the carriage to take photos!

Bordertown is  just over the border into South Australia from Victoria.  Its claims to fame are a colony of White Kangaroos and being the birth place of former prime minister, Bob Hawke. 

Murray Bridge has a population of over 16,000 and takes its name from the first road bridge over the mighty Murray River, built in 1879.  At 2,508 kilometres, this the longest river in Australia.  

Monarto is an "open range zoo" North of Murray Bridge where antelope, zebra and giraffe roam.  We saw the last of these while passing on the train.

The vegetation became much greener around the Murray River and the terrain more variable, rising steeply at Mount Lofty.  

We took a taxi to our motel - and what a good choice (booked three months ago).  The room is large, with en suite, air con, tv, fridge, microwave, and lots of storage space, plus free wifi!  It's also cheap, has all the shopping opportunities we need nearby and a bus stop for transport to the city centre close by. 

Dave writes:

Train arrives 30 minutes early shock

Up at 5.0 am to make it in time to check in luggage by 0705 for the 0805 Overland from Melbourne to Adelaide. 

500 miles in 10 hours across a variety of engrossing landscapes. 

Memorable trip in "business" class for only an extra £10 each with kangaroos and giraffes viewed along the way. 

And to cap it all we do it in "only" 9 1/2 hours in ideal conditions.