Going Places - Early Years of Travel in Australia

Episode from the 1999 TV series Our Century, presented by Ray Martin. Getting about a big country like Australia was slow & rough going in the early days,but it wasn't until the laying of country train tracks & the invention of the plane that transporting people long distances,comfortably, had started to become reality.

[@jesusislukeskywalker4294]

legend for posting this. good work

[@allandoyle3555]

thanks for these films mate i apreciate your efforts..and i realy am enjoying them...

[@waynehope9467]

No worries 😊

[@lorenzomagazzeni5425]

Lovely golden long legged sheilas back then, handsome men.

[@peterbassett8647]

fabulous, thanks!

[@stephenmeek520]

I remember travelling Perth-Melbourne on the Indian Pacific 1978 great trip!!with my mate Ross Napier

[@bobbypaluga4346]

Excellent documentary, I might have a little problem with the "first transcontinental railroad" completed in 1917. I seem to recall.another project in the northern hemisphere. I enjoyed the history of Aussie aviation, you folks have done remarkable things

[@davydleech3385]

First transcontinental railroad as in crossing the continent, as in Australia. There is no part of Australia in the Northern Hemisphere.

[@gatthom1]

Thanks

[@smitajky]

We had 6 states and 1 territory. Five of these had 3'6" gauge. 2 had substantial 5'3" gauge and 1 had a single line of this gauge. 1 state only had 4'8 1/2" so which one would YOU choose as the mandatory gauge for all railways? Obvious that we should pick 4'8 1/2" Which delayed standardization by many decades.

[@trackdusty]

A complex question, explained well here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_gauge_in_Australia

[@medullaoblongata9670]

My in-laws traveled by ship to Australia. I always wished that they had of dropped my wife off at Station Pier and kept sailing on to Antarctica!.

[@trackdusty]

Economy not strong enough there, so their sole reason for migrating wouldn't have been achieved.

[@ThePerson1959]

I wish it could be those days again. I would love to be traveling by train again the way it was. Flying might be quicker but is it every boring.

[@peterm1826]

I AGREE

[@franzchong5889]

reg must be spinning in his grave seeing what those air new zealand bastards did to the airline he created.

[@kings7man]

now for a high speed train from melbourne to sydney or even a hyperloop

[@ivanolsen8596]

Ha bloody ha.

[@northseabrent]

11:01 Gollywogs

[@jamesgovett2501]

He said you had to change trains six times from Brisbane to Perth, l make it seven times back then, 1- Brisbane to Sydney 2- Sydney to Albury 3- Albury to Melbourne 4- Melbourne to Adelaide 5- Adelaide to Port Pirie 6-Port Pirie to Kalgoorlie 7- Kalgoorlie to Perth on narrow, standard & broad gauges & six seperate railways, QR, NSW railways, Victorian railways, S.A.R, Commonwealth Railways, WAGR. There was relatively short journey from Adelaide to Port Pirie to board the Commonwealth Railways Trans Australia to Kalgoorlie back then.

[@johnd8892]

Since 1930 Brisbane to Albury was all standard gauge.
After 1962 Brisbane to Melbourne was all standard gauge.
Lots of changing to another train was not gauge related but to do with the servicing of carriages not being interrupted by the small number of passengers travelling Brisbane to Melbourne and aligning with times people prefer to travel.

[@Kevinegan1]

I am fast approaching the age when, travel by aircraft or a Philipino motorcycle sidecar, no longer engages my mind's deep-rooted instinct of self-preservation, as it once did. As in my youth, when I was an avid previously unexplored cave explorer and all-around-daredevil, I revisit my life's long mantra of, "it's been here for God only knows how many years, so why choose these few moments in time to kill me now?" The law of averages assures me that there is relatively no chance that any such mode of transport of my choosing, at this point, will result in harm befalling me. But fate does not recognize such things as the law of averages. Fate has shown on many occasions how it rather stealthily circumvents the laws of man and of God. That is why, in age, many simply no longer give credence to self-preservation, the law of averages, nor fate. Those are worries of the young. For many years such things were heavy unwanted burdens, but in age, I have cast them off for other, stronger and, younger souls to carry away into the future. From my vantage point, I can see them fading away across time and into the future, but my time is yesterday and my future is now.

[@cardinia1]

i love cake myself

[@Cruelaid]

Kids with guns... shock horror 😱

[@NoTaboos]

Fake aircraft sounds.

[@FlgOff044038]

Proof of incompetent Politicians continues to this day.