Scans from the late Sid Game's 35mm transparencies of the 1970 family road trip to Central Australia, which also encompassed an unscheduled ride aboard the historic, original,'Ghan' railway. After surveying the wear and tear sustained by the family station wagon over some 900 miles (1500km) of sand, gravel and corrugations on the northbound drive to Alice Springs, my father booked us on a ride south in the 'dogbox' compartments of the venerable Central Australian Railway. The family vehicle was winched onto a flatcar for the overnight journey via Finke, William Creek and Oodnadatta, to Marree, a tiny outpost in northern South Australia.

Last two images show some of the original Ghan rolling stock, now shuttling enthusiasts and sightseers back and forth on a relatively short stretch of track (the Pichi Richi Railway) in the foothills of South Australia's Flinders Ranges.

Nowadays the Stuart Highway, spanning the continent from south to north, is tar-sealed all the way, whilst The Ghan has been reborn as an upscale, premium-priced tourist railway, following a rerouted track southbound from Alice Springs. The new track between Alice Springs and the Northern Territory capital of Darwin has been very largely built from scratch, the old route having been overly damage-prone.