The Indian Pacific has, above all, unified Australia's rival states, and in a nation where Perth activists demand secession from the eastern states, this is a crucial role.Today at Platform One of Sydney's grand old Central Station, easily the most impressive in the land, passengers are eased towards their compartments by neat, uniformed staff. The well-heeled enjoy spacious first class sleeping berths, while budget travellers crowd into the chiropractic nightmare of the coach class seats. At 2.40pm exactly we set out on our trans-continental adventure, leaving behind moist-eyed relatives, curious friends and jealous trainspotters.For the first hour we struggle to shake off the sprawl of the Sydney suburbs. After Emu Plains we begin the ascent of the Blue Mountains, the peaks that form the New South Wales section of the great dividing range that runs the length of Australia's east coast.
Not particularly elevated by European standards, the thick bush-clad slopes formed an insurmountable barrier to many escaped convicts, who died in search of the freedom that they believed could be reached in China.Today's first class passengers enjoy a more comfortable mountain crossing. Trains and quality restaurants may sound mutually exclusive, but somehow the Queen Adelaide restaurant - no mere buffet car, this - pulls it off. Passengers enjoy three evening meals, two luncheons and three breakfasts on board. Admittedly everything seems on the verge of collapse, with pirouetting waiters balancing as many as half-a-dozen plates dodging by diners' tables, and all manner of clanking and banging emanating from the kitchen. Fresh vegetables and fruit are taken aboard on the way, and the chefs perform minor miracles. But ironically, on a train which prides itself as an alternative to the airlines, much of the food is pre-prepared by the national airline Qantas.Our first evening meal, savoured with the sun setting over the Blue Mountains as a backdrop, is an Epicurean delight.
An entree of duck pheasant timbale with wild rosella salsa, or the standard Aussie fare of pumpkin soup, prepares the way for a main course of beef steak, flounder paupiettes or chicken rendang.French pastry rings laced with coffee cream or apple strudel make up the dessert, before the after-dinner coffee and handmade chocolates are served. The train's dining car offers a surprisingly enjoyable culinary experience, and as one fellow diner noted: "If you get bored of the food there's always the scenery outside."Passengers awake the first morning having already travelled further than the entire length of Britain. The verdant bush of the mountains has vanished overnight, leaving only a post-apocalyptic landscape of frazzled red dust and withered scrub. Rising out of the dust the town of Broken Hill, dubbed Silver City by the locals as it sits on top of one of the largest deposits of silver in the world, is the first chance for coach class passengers to stretch their legs since Sydney.Back out in the desert, the conductor somehow contrives to make "roos and emus" rhyme as he announces that the animals are making a cameo appearance. Eyes and camera lenses bulge against the windows and are immediately rewarded as a towering kangaroo props himself up on his tail to stare at the train.
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