Tuesday15th May - Broken Hill to Peterborough

Trains

Managed an early start this morning. The caravan park is on the edge of Broken Hill and the oasis abruptly ends and back to the arid landscape. 



1km to quarantine station

We were irritated with the advise received in the Broken Hill caravan park about the 2nd fruit fly quarantine station.  We were told that any fruit and vegies we bought in Broken Hill would be permitted so we stocked up.  Then we received a text 2 days ago from travellers who went on ahead of us, to say this wasn't true.  We checked the website which said all fruit and some specified vegetables would be confiscated so I gave all banned substances away to travellers going east. After setting off we discovered the quarantine checkpoint is 200kms inside the SA border, so we could have taken some fruit to eat for lunch. The caravan park manager omitted to mention this.  When we finally got there the officer confiscated our lettuce and brussel sprouts despite the fact the website said they were OK.  Must have fancied them for his tea I think.

Railway manager's transport to inspect the track

Arrived in Peterborough around 1.00pm and went to the railway museum.  Peterborough used to be a huge hub for trains converging from all areas.  There were 3 different track gauges met here until they all became standard width relatively recently.  The Indian Pacific still passes through and the Ghan used to.  We had passed many decaying towns on the road west and the SA railway used to employ maintenance workers at all of them as this was a main transit route for minerals from Broken Hill and sheep from the surrounding stations going to Port Augusta and Adelaide. 




1st class executive carriage 1920's

Peterborough, which was originally Petersburgh settled by German farmers, was a huge maintenance depot employing hundreds of men on the steam trains and later diesel trains.  This all finished in the late 70's and the town just died.  Fortunately enthusiasts rescued some of the old engines and carriages and they are being restored.  Really interesting.