(News.com.au posted the following story on September 25.)
SYDNEY, Australia — Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin came face to face with his new namesake today — a locomotive that will haul passenger trains through the Australian Outback on a transcontinental railroad.
As the railroad’s final tracks were joined in the northern port of Darwin, Irwin was in Sydney to christen the locomotive that will pull The Ghan, the passenger train that will run on the 3000km track between Darwin and the southern city of Adelaide.
The train already travels between Adelaide and the central Outback city of Alice Springs but thanks to 1420km of new tracks from Alice Springs to Darwin, it can now travel all the way from Australia’s south to its north coasts.
“What a little beauty,” Irwin said when he saw the red engine at Sydney’s Central Station. “Mate, it’s going to be awesome seeing this thing travel across the Australian Outback.”
The inaugural coast-to-coast trip for The Ghan, which is named for Afghan camel drivers and their animals that helped build parts of the original railway between Adelaide and Alice Springs, is scheduled for February next year.
The new rail link also will carry thousands of tons of freight each year and backers hope it will open an important new trade route between Australia and its neighbors in Asia.