The last narrow-gauge Ghan leaves Marree
A new standard-gauge line to Alice Springs, built well to the west of the original via Tarcoola, replaces the Central Australia Railway; the last narrow-gauge Ghan departs Marree on 25 November 1980. This is the rarest event in this Journey — a long-distance route being abandoned and re-surveyed rather than inherited — and it happened because the original alignment was wrong in a way that maintenance could not fix.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- The Ghan · route · Australia · not located
- Track gauge as a colonial decision · concept · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Ghan Railway
Supports the Central Australia Railway as the Ghan's original 1,067 mm narrow-gauge alignment from 1929, its replacement by a standard-gauge line via Tarcoola in 1980, and the 2004 Darwin extension. V55 verification basis: the library collection was identified as an authority and the chronology was carried in attributed Australian rail-history summaries; slsa.sa.gov.au was not fetched.
State Library of South Australia · Partly verified
https://digital.collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/nodes/view/628
Recorded on The Ghan
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.