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February 05, 2004
The Ghan...
... was the name given to the train from Adelaide (in South Australia) to Alice Springs (Northern Territory). Recently the rail link was extended to Darwin and on February 3rd, the first train arrived in Darwin after travelling almost 3000* kilometres from Adelaide.
You can read up on some of the history of the train (including an explanation of where the name came from), book a ticket, or read an item about the arrival in Darwin. The last link mentions that the Territorians welcomed the train in their own distinctive way and at the risk of starting another round of the recent media backlash, I have a link to the relevant photo :-) in the extended article. Please note that it is probably not safe for work (or anywhere else for that matter).
[*For the pedants the number was 2,979]
From Spike in the SMH:
250-bum salute
The Ghan passenger train finally arrived in Darwin on Tuesday, but not before it was given a 250-bum salute by the Territory's larrikin residents. Spike reported on January 13 that the salute's organiser, Russell Clark, was expecting about 150 Darwinians to join him in mooning the train as it passed the Livingstone airstrip 55 kilometres from Darwin.
He got more posteriors than he had bargained for, and managed to raise "about $1200" for the local hospital's children's ward by collecting donations and selling T-shirts boasting, "I mooned the first Ghan, February 3, 2004".
"There were about 500 there and probably half of them mooned the train," Clark told Spike. "The police were there and asked us to go down the other end of the track to make sure there wasn't any indecent exposure and all the dangly bits were covered. I don't think it offended anybody. I hope it didn't. It was just a bit of Territory humour."
Clark saw only one passenger's camera trained on the bottoms, but Livingstone local Cade Broomhall kindly sent us this image.
The image from the paper can be seen here. [Reminder - some viewers may find this offensive.]
Posted by Ozguru at February 5, 2004 12:02 PM
