Original subtitles

BILL NIGHY: Escape with us on a coast-to-coast journey

across the incredible outback of southern Australia.

We'll climb into the spectacular Blue Mountains...

..and descend into a frontier land.

MAN: You actually see Australia as a continent.

Not as a nation, but as a continent, and it's a magic feeling.

We'll meet people with a passion for pioneering railway history...

It's a way of life for us, for better or for worse.

..and discover how a remote outback observatory helped change the world.

'That's one small step for man...'

Our train will travel more than a thousand miles...

WOMAN: Morning.

..across desert plains...

I've become a train fanatic. Every time a train comes through,

I'm out here taking photos.

..and past a lake that changes colour,

before we reach our destination, Adelaide,

on the shores of the southern Indian Ocean.

It should be on everyone's bucket list.

This is no ordinary railway journey.

This is one of the most scenic railway journeys in the world -

the Indian Pacific, Australia.

Sydney, capital of New South Wales

and gleaming gateway to the Pacific Ocean.

More than five million people live in this vibrant city.

Central Station is a grand starting point...

MAN ON TANNOY: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Central Station.

..for a journey that will take us deep into the outback

and into Australia's past.

HORN BLARES

Only serious engines need apply for this route.

And with 8,000 horsepower between them,

two Pacific National NR class locos are up to the challenge.

Our sleeper train is named the Indian Pacific

after the two oceans it travels between.

It's an Australian icon.

Indian Pacific is ready for departing.

On platform two, we have carriages J, K, L, G, H, I, F.

On platform two, we are ready for boarding.

Twenty-nine carriages and a total length of 850m

means our train takes up two entire platforms.

MAN ON TANNOY: Please make your way to the check-in desk

on platforms two and three.

Getting 200 passengers and their luggage

into the right carriages is no mean feat.

All aboard!

As 30 members of crew make last-minute preparations...

..the passengers make themselves at home.

HORN BLARES

All guests are now on board and we are ready to depart.

All aboard!

Ladies and gentlemen, let's take this show on the road.

WHISTLE BLOWS

As our train powers west out of Central Station,

we can settle in for a coast-to-coast journey

across a rich tapestry of ancient landscapes.

The first leg of our 1,050-mile route

takes us up into the Blue Mountains,

an area steeped in railway history.

We'll pass through the gold rush town of Bathurst

and take in glorious night skies over Parkes.

400 miles further west, we'll reach a town straight out of a movie set

at Broken Hill.

We'll marvel at the vast salt lake of Bumbunga,

and sample the wine in Clare Valley.

Finally, we'll arrive at the southern coast

and our destination city of Adelaide.

HORN BLARES

An hour out of Sydney, and the passengers are enjoying views

of fertile plains and gently rolling hills,

not to mention a well-stocked bar.

For Michael, this isn't his first time on the Indian Pacific.

Might I say it's my sixth trip?

People look at me and say, "What?"

And I say yes, because it's just a magic trip,

and it's just a lovely place to be while you watch out the windows

and see the world go by.

Coming from Sydney, you go up the Blue Mountains.

It's just a scene that you could not believe.

You actually see Australia as a continent.

Not as a nation, but as a continent, and it's a magic feeling.

The Indian Pacific has been a firm favourite of train lovers

since 1970.

10,000 people cheered on the first service.

Its route unified what had been four separate railways

into a single transcontinental line.

Fifty years after the first train ran this route,

we're approaching one of the most dramatic landscapes

in New South Wales...

..the Blue Mountains National Park.

A thousand square miles

famous for dramatic cliffs and dense eucalyptus forests.

As our train climbs 1,100m above sea level

to the highest point on the line,

there's a slower mode of transport up here

which enjoys even more impressive views.

The Scenic Skyway is suspended 270m above the Jamison Valley.

It's owned and run by the same family who built it

more than 60 years ago.

The skyway was built by my father in 1958.

The fully laden car weighs about 12 tonnes.

The most asked question we have about the skyway is,

"How did you get the rope across the valley in 1958?"

The answer is - we dragged it across.

We ran the rope down that side of the valley.

We ran another rope over the edge of the cliff

and right down until they met at the creek.

We clipped them together and pulled it back up

and bingo, we had rope across the valley.

Sounds simple, doesn't it?

The cable car provides a bird's-eye view

from the Blue Mountains' most prominent geological feature...

..The Three Sisters.

These towering columns of eroded sandstone

feature in an Aboriginal legend.

Three sisters were turned to stone during a battle,

and no-one was able to turn them back again.

Their sad fate is to stand watch over the Blue Mountains.

This beautiful landscape has been hit hard

by Australia's rapidly changing climate.

In 2019, a raging storm of bushfires tore across the mountains.

Forest rangers like Grant were enlisted to fight the fires.

In the 2019-20 fire season,

the entire area was impacted by the Gospers Mountain fire.

They were flying in helicopters throughout New South Wales,

defending home and working as a team to try and preserve nature

as best we could. It was a great feeling to get the results we did,

even though it was a very hard season.

Despite the devastation, the forest is quickly springing back to life.

As you can see now, much of this area is starting to

really regenerate significantly, and those kind of exposed black stumps

that we were seeing everywhere have now been overtaken

by that fresh eucalypt growth that provides that green blanket

that the Blue Mountains is famous for.

It's a really magical place and I'm really blessed

to be able to protect it for generations to come.

Some people think that these eucalyptus trees

gave the Blue Mountains their name.

The trees release oils, which can combine with water

and dust in the air to create an optical illusion -

a beautiful blue haze that hangs over the landscape.

As the Indian Pacific begins its descent off the mountains...

..we're about to pass through an area rich in railway history.

And gold rush territory.

We're 70 miles into one of the world's most scenic railway journeys

aboard the mighty Indian Pacific

as it surges into the Australian outback.

Descending from the highest point on the line,

our train passes a daredevil railway from the pioneer days.

We'll head on through the gold rush town of Bathurst

before chasing the setting sun 130 miles west to Parkes

and its world-famous observatory.

For two of the passengers, there's a special significance to this trip.

I'm here with my daughter

doing a trip that was on my and my husband's bucket list.

Unfortunately, he passed away,

so I'm enjoying the journey with my daughter

and we're having a great time.

It's just absolutely amazing.

The starkness of the countryside is just magnificent.

Really happy that I can share it with my daughter.

It's sadness and a happy time at the same time.

I did expect to come in and be, like, the youngest person

by about 40 years, but there's actually a bit of variety,

so I'm pretty surprised about that.

But, yeah, it's a bit of an emotional roller-coaster.

I'm really happy that I can be here to support Mum and, you know,

spend the time with her. We're here for each other.

Yeah, it's been good. It should be on everyone's bucket list.

On its descent off the Blue Mountains,

our train enters the first of ten tunnels.

Blasted through the sandstone,

the longest tunnel is over a half a mile.

This impressive engineering was designed to gently ease trains

up and down the western side of the mountain range.

Until 1910, the route down the mountainside was steeper

and much more hair raising.

Instead of the tunnels and gentle gradient of our train's route,

the old line zig-zagged down the mountain

in a series of viaducts and daring switchbacks.

The turns were so fierce that a runaway train

nearly plunged over the cliff.

Nowadays, the line is a heritage route called the Zig Zag Railway.

They have a workshop near Lithgow,

and today, the dedicated enthusiasts

are gearing up for an important journey.

The whole show starts with a little match, hopefully.

This is a second home for chief engineer Chris.

This locomotive has been part of my life for nearly half of it.

My pop was a railway man

and then my dad was involved here at the Zig Zag from 1975.

Now my son's here as well.

I met my wife here. We've married 12 years now.

It's a way of life for us, for better or for worse.

The Zig Zag was first rescued from dereliction 50 years ago.

But since 2013, a series of bushfires destroyed

2,000 timber sleepers, burned down an engine shed

and scorched the precious locos.

Now the volunteers are bringing the Zig Zag back to life

for a second time.

Before they can reopen the line to the public,

they must be certain the engines are in tip-top condition.

Today, engine 218 will be the first steam loco

to climb the Zig Zag in a decade.

Hauling 170 tonnes up the line to Clarence Station

will test both track and engine.

Steam trains can only pull so much, and the steeper the gradient,

the less they can pull.

So, the Zig Zag Railway has a 1-in-40 gradient.

That means for every 40 metres in which you travel,

you go up or down one metre.

Up at Clarence, that's 980m higher than where we're standing

over seven kilometres, so it's quite a journey in a steam locomotive,

and quite hard work, because you quite literally zig and zag your way

up and down the mountain.

Everything on the test run goes so well

that just as soon as they reach the top...

..engine 218 sets off straight back down again.

The Zig Zag Railway is back on track...

..and will be welcoming passengers again soon.

Our train is now on the western side of the Blue Mountains.

And we're into prime agricultural land.

Time for dinner.

Head chef Dan has around 200 hungry passengers to feed.

Whether it's two, three, four, five kitchens we've got on the train,

it's my job to oversee all of that.

So, three meals a day and three courses get pretty hectic.

My whole life has revolved around kitchens that are stationary.

And this one, as you can tell, isn't stationary.

It took me a while to get used to.

You learn to drop your knife, so to speak, when the train jolts,

but I love it. I couldn't see myself working in a kitchen

that doesn't move now.

All our menus are local.

We're travelling through the area.

You're eating produce that comes from that area.

As the passengers tuck into fillets of New South Wales beef

and Pacific Ocean swordfish...

..the Indian Pacific is entering a region rich in history.

And once rich in gold.

Just over 200 years ago,

the first European explorers to make it this far west of Sydney

chose these fertile plains to build a settlement.

Bathurst is the oldest inland town in Australia.

In 1851, gold was discovered here.

Thousands of people poured into the area

hoping to find their fortunes.

As Bathurst boomed, grand new buildings shot up.

The grandest of all was on the outskirts of town.

This house symbolised Australia's new wealth,

but its style is distinctly Scottish.

Abercrombie House was built by a Scotsman,

and he wanted everyone to know it.

The Highland Scots are a proud people.

So this is Scottish Highland in a paddock at Bathurst.

Christopher's family moved here in 1969

when the house had fallen on hard times.

My mother and father came to Bathurst

to buy a weekender in the country, believe it or not,

and they happened upon this magnificent mansion.

And all the locals said, "Well, no-one's lived in it for 50 years,

"and maybe the descendants of the family who built it

"would sell it to you if you think you can save it."

Slowly piecing back together the baronial interiors

has required serious detective work.

Now, we found fabulous things still intact here,

like this fireplace, which was made in 1879 in England

of Italian Carrara marble.

But the whole of the piece on the floor was missing

because it had been sold in 1927.

And by an extraordinary coincidence, I found it again.

A fellow in Goulburn had it in his living room.

Since the earliest days of this slow and steady restoration,

Abercrombie House has thrown open its doors to the public.

So, we're 53 years along that journey,

and all through it, there have been people who've been interested in it,

so it's a bit like living in a fishbowl, you know?

But I love this house and I know I'm part of something

very extraordinary and special here.

As the sun begins to set over gold rush country,

our train approaches the little town of Parkes.

We're now deep into a landscape famous for vast open skies.

For 60 years, this area has been the home

to the mother of all stargazers.

The Parkes radio telescope is known affectionately as The Dish.

It's not actually a telescope, but a giant radio antenna.

Scientists, like John, use it to listen to the stars.

The Parkes telescope is 64m in diameter,

and it has a collecting area of one acre,

which means it's very sensitive.

That also means that we're able to detect signals

from the furthest reaches of the universe.

In fact, this telescope was responsible

for discovering the most distant objects in the universe

called quasars,

and they lie billions of light years from the Earth.

I've always been fascinated with astronomy and this observatory,

this telescope that we're in right now,

is one of the premier instruments of its kind in the world.

Then to collaborate with astronomers to do great world-class science

really is the thing, that as a boy, as I was growing up,

I was dreaming of doing, and so to find myself here now

is really exciting.

The Dish is best known for the pivotal role it played

in receiving and relaying images of mankind's most audacious feat

of space exploration.

The year was 1969.

When I was six years old, I remember watching

the Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin,

walking on the Moon.

Watched it live on television along with 600 million people

around the world.

And so to find myself today in the very room, in the very place,

that those pictures were received, is really mind-blowing.

MAN: 'Roger. And for your information, we show you

'at an altitude of about 92 miles above the surface right now.'

To receive transmissions from Apollo 11,

the Parkes crew kept the radio telescope at its steepest angle

despite dangerously high winds.

BUZZ ALDRIN: 'That looks beautiful from here, Neil.'

Thankfully, The Dish held firm

and the whole world could watch Neil Armstrong's

first steps on the Moon.

'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.'

Parkes had shown what Australian scientists and engineers

were capable of.

And they're still doing it today.

Sixty years after it was constructed, it is still arguably

the finest single-dish radio telescope in the world.

We're still doing great science, making great discoveries

that are revolutionising our understanding of the universe.

BELL DINGS

As 200-odd passengers slumber in their cabins,

the Indian Pacific rolls on through the outback.

A new day, and even more spectacular sights, lay just ahead.

It's day two of our scenic railway journey

across the Australian outback.

We've travelled through the night into the scorched desert heartlands

of New South Wales.

More than 400 miles from Parkes...

..our train will stop at the historic town of Broken Hill,

before reaching a trainspotter's paradise in Peterborough,

and then on to the eerie beauty of Lake Bumbunga.

Morning.

Waking up in the outback hasn't lost its appeal for the train crew.

I usually sleep with my blind up

to get to really experience that early morning.

We're up early anyway, so may as well wake up

with a beautiful sunrise in the background to enjoy it.

We've reached Broken Hill and the first station stop

for our sleeper train.

There's time for the passengers to step off,

stretch their legs and see the sights.

MAN: Have a good tour.

Like Bathurst, this is a frontier mining town.

But this town wasn't built on gold.

There's silver ore in them there hills,

and it's been mined here continuously for almost 120 years.

People travel far and wide to experience

the extraordinary red landscape that surrounds this silver city.

Just outside of town lies an area known as the Living Desert.

What's the water like? I was hoping there'd be a little lizard in there.

Ranger Darrell and his team look after this nine-square-mile reserve.

It's a vital oasis for wildlife.

When we get good heavy rains, the water gushes down

through the waterfall and comes in here, fills up this water hole.

This is where the Aborigine people used to get water and that.

They knew there was water here at all times.

Annual average rainfall here is just 22cm.

The rapidly changing climate means droughts

are getting longer and hotter.

So Darrell gives the local wildlife a helping hand.

We come down every day to the sanctuary here

and feed the kangaroos.

We've got euros, reds and...that come in here, and blue flyers.

So, we feed them every day, feed them roo pellets

because of the tucker that's in it for them, makes them healthy.

And as you can see, the roos are just very contented.

They just lay around and everything.

And we've also got our sleepy lizards, which is a shingleback.

The birdlife for birdwatchers is absolutely good.

And also all the flies too, they're all friendly as well.

LAUGHTER

The Living Desert is also home to some striking sculptures.

Each has been designed to reflect the majesty of this setting.

With a landscape that looks like this...

..it's no wonder Hollywood has paid a visit more than once.

Mad Max 2 and Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert

were shot around Broken Hill.

The whole town looks like a movie set.

Nowhere more so than the local milk bar.

It dates back to 1892, when it sold cordials.

By the 1950s, they'd moved on to milkshakes.

This retro gem has been lovingly restored by owner Jason.

Where we are now is a 1956 version of the milk bar,

more or less as it was in 1956.

It's a bit like restoring an old car. The essence of it's there,

and then you've got to add some new bits, like the coffee machine.

Time to get back on board the Indian Pacific.

One teabag for you, two teabags for you.

And time for a late breakfast.

Coming out!

We're now crossing the border from New South Wales

and into the state of South Australia.

It's a stretch of line with not too many landmarks.

Oh, there's a house. Mm.

But it's all part of the experience for regular passenger Michael.

You don't see much in the green areas,

but out when it starts to get a little bit barren,

it's not unusual to see flocks of emus running along the side

to overtake the train.

The occasional kangaroo.

Oh, a duck. Could you just go back and I'll put in I saw a duck?

Every desert has a watering hole, and we're approaching one now.

Ninety-five miles west of Broken Hill,

we pass through Manor Hill.

This one-horse town doesn't even have a horse,

but opposite the station it does have a pub.

Owner Diane always knows when the Indian Pacific is due.

I've become a train fanatic.

Every time a train comes through,

I'm out here taking photos and videos.

I know exactly when it's coming through, when it's late.

It comes through twice a week, like, both ways.

I take pictures and photos of the Indian Pacific.

I post them on Facebook, on the railway groups that I'm in.

It's definitely catching. You've got such a beautiful backdrop.

Sacrilege not to take some photos

and catch the trains as they go through.

And living across the road from this railway station,

how can you not like trains?

Well put, Diane.

When the first railways crossed the South Australian outback

140 years ago,

isolated rural communities were suddenly connected.

Seventy-five miles from Manor Hill lies Peterborough.

In the heyday of the railways, more than a hundred trains

would pass through the town every day.

It had its very own cathedral of steam

called the Roundhouse.

This workshop was built to service up to 20 engines at one time.

These beautifully preserved locos aren't going anywhere nowadays.

Peterborough has become a sleepy backwater.

But pride of place on Main Street

is a statue to a local hero of the railways.

Bob the dog was a little character in the 1890s

that came up to Peterborough with a whole lot of other stray dogs

from Adelaide, because we had a rabbit plague up here.

Bob soon found his true calling as a free spirit of the railways.

He befriended the engine drivers and rode with them in their cabs.

This is the depot where Bob used to come to work,

get on the trains and go everywhere,

whether it was Adelaide, Broken Hill.

There's a story that he went to Melbourne, so he travelled a lot.

Bob was actually kidnapped or dognapped by a farmer.

He heard the whistle of the train.

He got back on that train and he came back to Peterborough.

The railway union produced a collar for Bob,

because he became an icon of South Australia.

And the collar had little saying on it.

And it said, "Stop me not, but let me jog,

"for I am Bob, the drivers' dog."

The vast, empty vistas of this region

have always appealed to free spirits.

As we power on towards the Clare Valley,

to the west of our route lies a natural wonder

that brings a splash of vivid colour

to this arid landscape.

This is Lake Bumbunga.

It's famous for changing hue with the seasons

from blue to white to pink.

Bumbunga is a salt lake.

Each summer, a huge expanse dries up.

For over a hundred years, the salt was harvested in huge quantities

and taken away by train.

Not much salt is harvested from Lake Bumbunga nowadays.

But on its southern tip, in the little town of Lochiel,

an old depot has been turned into a thriving cafe

by Heather and Vicki.

They like to keep a keen eye on the town's most popular

tourist attraction.

Lochiel has its very own Nessie, which is called the Loch Eel.

He's about three-and-a-half metres tall,

made of stainless steel and fibreglass.

He's got all the bells and whistles, and people are flocking to see him.

Mm, very popular.

I've got the binoculars in the kitchen ready to see

what's going on out in the lake, so...

Frequently, I'll run in the kitchen and she's there

looking out the window with the binoculars. Yes, well...

Some people feel the need to take their car out on the lake.

They just want to drive out there.

It's never a good idea, because every time they'll get bogged.

Um, really bogged.

Only a few days ago, too, there was a car and a boat,

and they thought they might go for a drive out there.

Well, that didn't end well at all. No.

Out here, it's safest to stay on the beaten track.

Our train is now approaching its home stretch...

..and one of the world's most famous wine-growing regions.

We're on the final leg of our 1,050-mile coast-to-coast journey

across the vast landscapes of New South Wales and South Australia.

Exploring the outback by train has been an eye-opening experience.

I think this is just the most wonderful trip.

I worked formerly as an airline pilot

and I travelled over a lot of this countryside

in my 30 years of experience in the airline.

But it's not up close and personal.

This is right up close, right outside your window.

It's just beautiful.

It's all change again,

as the dry plains give way to fertile farmland and rolling hills.

We're approaching the Clare Valley.

On the upper slopes, hot summer days are tempered by cool nights.

And with plenty of rainfall, this is perfect wine-growing country.

In fact, today's choice of Riesling

was produced right here in the Clare Valley.

Skillogalee Vineyard is owned by British couple Diana and Dave.

They chanced upon this place by accident more than 30 years ago.

Dave always says that we bought Skillogalee

in a fit of midlife crisis.

We'd only been in Australia for three years,

so when we heard it was for sale, we just thought,

"Wow, this is the life we want to live."

We didn't have any experience growing grapes or making wine,

but we thought we could do it and we have grown into it.

On a whim, they had bought a prime slice

of one of Australia's most prized wine-growing regions.

Now they just had to learn how to make the stuff.

Although I had made a few demijohns of elderflower wine at university,

it was completely undrinkable.

I got a job as a cellar hand and watched what was done,

asked awkward questions and learned a lot.

The more the couple learned, the more ambitious they became.

We were just getting out of debt from buying this place

when the property next door came up for sale.

We needed some more fruit

and it just was too good an opportunity to miss,

so we went right back into debt again.

More than three decades after coming here,

the novice winemakers are now old hands.

We now produce about 15,000 dozen wines a year.

It's more than I can drink myself, so we have to sell a few.

Um...

It's not hard to see why Diana and Dave

fell in love with this region.

The French have a term, terroir,

which means that microclimate, I suppose,

that particular place in the world,

that everything comes together to allow you to grow those grapes,

to make that wine. And we've got this lovely place

in the hills of the Clare Valley

that has just its own little climate, and it's very peaceful.

It's quiet and you can just slow down, relax,

have a glass of wine.

There's just time for the passengers to enjoy a final glass or two,

as 90 miles south of Clare Valley, we approach the end of our journey

in Adelaide.

As our train rolls into the station...

..and our passengers say goodbye...

See you later!

..a city of wide boulevards and gracious squares awaits them.

Adelaide was originally built for British settlers.

Today, it's the state capital of South Australia

and one of the country's most vibrant cities.

Adelaide is known as the Festival City.

There are amazing arts and cultural festivals

happening throughout the year, including Adelaide Fringe Festival,

the largest arts festival in the southern hemisphere,

the second largest fringe festival in the world

after Edinburgh, actually.

There is always something going on, always something around the corner.

But it's not just the festival atmosphere that draws people here.

Adelaide is also famous for its beautiful beaches...

..like Port Noarlunga.

What better spot to sit back and watch the sun go down?

It's the perfect place to end our Australian adventure.

On our epic two-day train ride from Sydney to Adelaide,

we have climbed into the beautiful Blue Mountains...

..joined a steam train that zigzags across perilous slopes...

HORN BLARES

..spent a night under magical skies...

..travelling right across the outback

from the shores of the Pacific to the southern Indian Ocean.