The Indian Pacific (Perth to Adelaide), Australia
The Indian Pacific is one of Australia’s quintessential rail journeys. The famous transcontinental crossing runs from Sydney to Perth or Perth to Sydney, through the Blue Mountains, outback New South Wales and South Australia, Adelaide, and across the celebrated Nullarbor. While the 4352 kilometre train line itself was first completed in 1917, it wasn’t until 1970 that the journey became possible on a single connection and the Indian Pacific train was born. It has now evolved from a means of travel into a luxury experience, complete with ensuite cabins, fine dining and off-train excursions.
In our pandemic-inspired explorations of Australia, South Australia had been sadly neglected. To rectify that situation, it was time to visit some of their luxury lodges – Arkaba in the Flinders Ranges and The Louise in the Barossa. But rather than fly from Perth to Adelaide, we upped the ante on the luxury stakes by making that journey on the iconic Indian Pacific, in Platinum Class.
The Indian Pacific from Perth to Adelaide
The Indian Pacific departs from Perth once per week on Sunday mornings, arriving into Adelaide on Tuesday morning. For those making the full transcontinental journey, it arrives into Sydney on the Thursday morning, having travelled the 4300 kilometre journey in 65 hours over 4 days and 3 nights.
There are two classes of travel available on the Indian Pacific – the very popular Gold Class Service, with 182 beds available, and the extra-exclusive Platinum Class, with just 28 beds. All feature private cabins and nearly all are ensuite. The less salubrious Red Class, with seats rather than cabins, was removed in 2016 as the Indian Pacific moved towards targeting the luxury travel market.
Within Gold Class, there are three tiers. The vast majority are Gold Twin rooms, with a three seater lounge by day that converts into bunks by night, and a compact private ensuite. Slightly more economical Gold Single rooms have a single lounge seat that converts into a single bed at night, with shared bathroom facilities at the end of the carriage. And finally the Gold Superior Cabins have a ¾ size double bed and an upper berth, additional seating space and a private ensuite. All Gold Class clients share the Queen Adelaide carriage for meals and the Outback Explorer Lounge for relaxing.
Platinum Class takes the whole Indian Pacific experience to the next level and we can highly recommend this splurge. Although we do note that at the time of our travel, Platinum Class was fully booked out for the next 18 months, up until December 2023.
The Platinum Experience on the Indian Pacific
The Platinum Experience begins before you even board the train, with private limousine transfers of up to 60 kilometres at each end. From our Mount Lawley home to the East Perth terminus is barely three kilometres, much to the bewilderment of our chauffeur, but why take a taxi when you can take a complimentary limosine?
At the terminal, there is a dedicated Platinum registration counter, and check-in is seamless and swift. Our checked luggage allowance is a whopping 90 kilograms per passenger (even Gold Class is a generous 60 kilograms each) and our checked bags are whisked away to the baggage car, while our smaller carry-on bags are delivered to our cabin.
Once inside the terminal, there is time to admire the sleek silver styling of the train’s 29 carriages, fronted by the bright blue and gold locomotive, before being encouraged aboard the Platinum Club Carriage for welcome drinks.
The Platinum section of the Indian Pacific is comprised of four carriages – the Platinum Club Car and three carriages of accommodation, labelled H, I and J. Two of the carriages, I and J, have five rooms apiece and appear slightly older with dark wood panelling and more ornate fixtures, while the third, carriage H in which we are housed, has lighter coloured tones and feels more airy and open as a result. It also has four cabins rather than five, and instead of the fifth cabin it has a small lounge at its far end. Although this lounge is not serviced like the Platinum Club car, it does provide opportunities for out-of-cabin relaxing at either end of the Platinum zone. Each carriage also has a refreshment station with cookies, fruit, a nespresso machine with milk frother, a selection of teas and chilled water dispenser.
If requesting a particular cabin, it would appear that apart from the mobility-assisted cabin, all are essentially identical, other than whether they are configured as king or twin. Half the cabins have forward-facing chairs and half have rear-facing, with the orientation changing at the midpoint of the journey in Adelaide where the train is reversed. If you are only travelling on one leg of the journey, such as from Perth to Adelaide and have a preference as to which direction you are facing, you can make this request. It is also worth noticing that cabins have two windows – an exterior window looking directly from the cabin to outside, and also an interior window that looks out into the carriage corridor and through the window on the corridor side, allowing views of both sides from your cabin. But not all cabins have interior windows that line up properly with the corridor windows, meaning some cabins have better views than others. The pick of the crop are cabins 1 and 5 in carriages I and J, and cabins 1 and 4 in carriage H, where the windows line up perfectly. The worst aligned windows are cabins 3 in each of the carriages, especially carriages I and J, with windows that barely overlap and make views possible only from one side of the carriage.
Personally, we very much liked being in carriage H, with its subtlely more modern styling and its hidden lounge. And while further away from the dining car in the Platinum Club, this meant other guests were much less likely to be walking past our cabin.
The Platinum cabins are as luxurious as you would hope them to be. The living room, measuring approximately 3 metres by 3 metres, consists of two large lounge seats side-by-side, a coffee table with two small ottomans underneath and a fold-out side-table beside the window. There are built-in cupboards on either side of the lounge seats, with hanging space above and drawers below. There are also storage drawers beneath the lounges. There are long panoramic windows on both sides of the cabin.
The private bathroom is generously proportioned (by train standards). There is a vanity with a small sink and built-in cupboard, a normal toilet, a shower cubicle with copious hot water and plenty of soft fluffy towels. Bathroom amenities are by Appelles.
By night, the cabins are converted into bedrooms – the lounges fold down and are replaced by a full sized double bed, replete with soft pillows, fine linen and cozy quilts. Mood lighting, robes, chocolates and night-caps complete the warm ambience.
Shortly after boarding, our Hospitality Attendant visits us in our room, to explain the room features, ensure our comfort, and to discuss the dining options and off-train excursions that we want to participate in. Each Platinum carriage has their own private Hospitality Attendant who help to guarantee a seamless experience on board.
The Platinum Club Carriage is the bar, dining car and social hub of the Platinum section. This stylishly appointed carriage is modern and luxurious, with banquette seating for coffee or drinks, and dinner tables in twos and fours. With crisp white linen tablecloths, fine cutlery and sparkling glassware, the dining service is refined but yet relaxed. Menus are curated to reflect the journey, with regionally-inspired dishes and locally sourced ingredients. The presentation is immaculate, especially given that everything is being prepared in the narrow kitchen carriage adjacent, which is rolling and bouncing with the movement of the train.
The Platinum Club Carriage is also the setting for social activities aboard the train, such as the on-board musician and the quiz, as well as general socialising with fellow guests. But as lovely as our fellow guests seemed to be, we were somewhat relieved to find that all social activities were entirely optional. And as much as other writers have expounded on the joys of mingling and sharing stories on their Indian Pacific journey, we were very happy to enjoy the views and the serenity from the luxury of our private Platinum cabin.
The Journey… Perth to Adelaide on the Indian Pacific
For a journey that of 4300 kilometres over 65 hours, the Indian Pacific is surprisingly ruthless in its departure time – right on the dot of 10am, our 29 carriage train heaves into motion and we are off, departing from East Perth Train Station and chuffing through the eastern suburbs of Perth. We attempt to sneak in a few last minute phone calls and emails, but within a surprisingly short number of minutes, we are suddenly beyond suburbia, phone coverage is lost, and we are, fortuitously, forced to abandon the real world and succumb to magic of the journey that is the Indian Pacific.
The train line weaves through the Avon Valley National Park along the Avon River, with picturesque vistas that are inaccessible on any road routes and which made us determined to visit on foot in the future. Soon we are meandering through the Wheatbelt, a patchwork of farmlands and grazing and small country towns, of gum trees and gently rolling hills.
As the Wheatbelt becomes the Goldfields, we are invited into the Platinum Club for lunch, a light meal of **, with an intoxicatingly good chocolate brownie with raspberry sorbet for dessert. We ensconce ourselves in our cabin for the afternoon, watching the landscape transition – flattening out, drying out, becoming the “outback” for which Australia is renowned. We nibble on snacks from our room and help ourselves to coffee from the mini-kitchens and settle in to the journey.
Dinner is a four course affair, and we dressed up for the occasion, as did many of the Platinum Club guests (although many were also happily casual). Bollinger champagne is available, and nothing is too much trouble for the attentive hosts.
During dinner, the hospitality attendants discreetly convert our cabin from a living room into a bedroom. The mood lighting is set, the double bed is soft with decadent linens, there are robes laid out, and there are chocolates and Baileys night-caps on the beside tables.
Many guests were now departing for the off-train experience at Kalgoorlie, a two and a half hour visit to a Tourist Mine and the Kalgoorlie Super Pit. As readers of this blog well know, we are rarely ones for tour buses and group excursions, and so had decided to sit this one out, instead settling in for a cozy evening in our cabin, with our chocolates and our Baileys (and perhaps one or two extra of those night-caps!).
We depart from Kalgoorlie in the dead of night, leaving the last of the habitation under a veil of bright stars. The train lurches through the darkness in fits and starts – its rumbling and rolling momentum punctuated by long stops in sidings, waiting for oncoming trains to pass, then rattling back into life again with a shriek and a groan. It is a raucous clickety-clacking journey, and sleep seems unlikely, but the lilting and lolling are hypnotic and our slumber is deep.
The morning wake-up call may have happened, or maybe not – our ears have accustomed to the din and we don’t hear a thing until the vibrations of our phone alarms eventually cajole us awake. The sky is still dark, but the stars are beginning to fade and there is a smudge of red on the horizon. By the time we shower and dress, there is enough light in the sky to make out our surroundings, or lack thereof – we are now deep in the Nullarbor and the vast expanse of rocky red dirt and stubby scrub extends in all directions.
We arrive in Rawlinna station just in time for dawn. Safety regulations unfortunately prevent us from walking all the way to the front or the rear of the train for the best sunrise photo opportunities, disappointing the serious photographers on board. Instead we wander the atmospheric outpost as the sun slowly rises, exploring the quirky collection of derelict station buildings juxtaposed with the modern infrastructure of this remote outback stopping-post.
Adjacent to the carriages, the Indian Pacific team spring into life setting up an off-train experience – drum-fires provide warmth in the crisp morning air, there are juices, coffees and fruit on the tables, and platters of bacon and egg sliders and cheese and spinach pinwheels are offered around. A pony and a musician, arising as if by magic from the surrounding desert, add to the festival air. After eating and exploring for an hour, guests are encouraged back aboard, and after another wait for a freight train to pass, we are traversing the Nullarbor again.
Although we are still a way from the South Australian border, the train team implement the time zone change now, bringing us forward an hour and a half, and making it almost time for 10am brunch. The menu offers an eclectic selection – classic breakfast fare such as toast and pastries, bacon and eggs or gammon steak with bubble and squeak, to more lunchtime dishes such as a camel curry and a haloumi and roast vegetable salad. Given that no further food is served until dinner at 7pm, we would encourage the heartier options, as guests that chose a light breakfast may well have been quite peckish by the time of dinner (and while the complimentary cookies in the mini-kitchens are great, there is only so many you can eat!).
And still the Nullarbor rolls on, its vast flat expanse extending to the horizon. Its enormous emptiness is eerily profound, but it is not completely devoid of life. Here and there cattle are grazing, or nestling in the meagre shade of a scrawny bush. There are occasional wild donkeys and camels. And overhead there are eagles, soaring on the currents.
We cross the South Australian border (a literal, blink-and-you-miss-it signpost) and journey onwards, by now enthralled by the rhythm of the train and the serenity of our surroundings. Just when it feels that the landscape can’t get any more barren, it seems that the South Australian side is even more empty than the Western Australian side – the scant vegetation is even more sparse, the horizon unbroken by any undulations, and even the wild animals seem to have given up on this arid wilderness. It is mesmerising in its monotony, with a raw beauty that is quintessentially Australian.
In the afternoon we arrive in Cook, a small town established in 1917 to support the exploration of Australia’s interior, but now a ghost town of ramshackle buildings including a school and an overgrown swimming pool. There are small signs providing information on the town and its early settlers, an insight into pioneering life in Australia.
Back on board, the land glows auburn under the slowly setting sun, and still we are miles from civilisation. This train line is one of the longest stretches of straight railway track in the world, and it pierces through South Australia’s interior, far from the towns of the coast to the south. The other great Nullarbor crossing, the Eyre Highway, is more than 200 kilometres away. This is truly remote Australia at its finest.
We are invited to the dining car for dinner, with another menu of decadent selections. We struggle to choose between the three options, and our charming waiter humours us by bringing us one of everything. All are delicious, as are the Australian wines on offer.
Back in our cabin, the turn-down service has again discreetly converted our cabin into a cosy bedroom, with more chocolates and another nightcap. The gently rocking train soon lulls us to sleep once more. It is not until deep in the night that the Indian Pacific finally turns southward and begins to enter small townships just north of Port Augusta, heralded with a cacophony of messages and notifications as our phones re-enter coverage for the first time since Kalgoorlie.
Onwards through the night we journey down the South Australian peninsula, entering the outskirts of Adelaide at dawn, watching as our 700 metre long train causes consternation at level crossings in the Tuesday morning traffic. Shortly before 7:30am, right on time, we arrive at Adelaide’s Parklands terminal, where most guests disembark for their morning activities (city tours, a visit to Adelaide Oval, a progressive breakfast at Adelaide Central Market), but where we are met by our friendly Platinum Service chauffeur, ready to whisk us away to commence the next part of our South Australian adventure – a visit to Arkaba, a Luxury Lodge of Australia, in the majestic Flinders Ranges.
