Day 9 - Alice Springs: Transport Hall of Fame and Ghan Museum

Sat 22 Aug 2015

We were all looking forward to going to the Transport Hall of Fame and the Ghan Museum today. Even though we didn’t travel on the Ghan we still had an interest in it from an historical view. This museum was very interesting and included a lot of our early outback history; well worth a look. There were a couple of carriages from trains that serviced the Ghan line. You could walk through the carriges and what was astounding was how small and cramped the First Class passenger carriages were; imagine what the other classes were like. The corridors were only about 350 mm wide. Hubby who is 1.92 mt tall and 125 kg could just fit in the corridor but it would have been impossible to get past anyone even if you turned side on.

Next door to the Ghan Museum was the Transport Hall of Fame. This is a massive site with an enormous amount of memorabilia. The building houses full sized transport rigs and is an eye opener to the history and evolution of our road freight transport. Sometimes when travelling we come across road trains with 4 trailers but imagine trying to pass one with 6 or 7 trailers! Yep that’s right, they’ve got photos of two road trains, one with 6 and one with 7 trailers.

Another highlight for us was seeing the Landrover used by Lasseter’s son Robert. Between 1966 and 1978 Robert travelled in the Landrover to search for the reef his father claimed to have found. If you’re interested in transport old and new then it’s worth checking this place out.

Visits: 3971