The Meeting Place: A Social History of the Adelaide to Darwin Railway by Jane Munday
The Meeting Place: A Social History of the Adelaide to Darwin Railway draws on oral histories, archival records and photos to tell the stories of the people who designed, built and depended on the railway: from turning the first sod in Port Augusta in 1878 to the completion of the new Alice Springs to Darwin line in 2004.
‘The Meeting Place’ covers:
- the contribution of the railway to the social and economic development of South Australia and the Northern Territory and the cyclical fortunes of towns along the route
- the overland telegraph and railway as a ‘meeting place’ of Aboriginal, settler and other cultures
- Aboriginal people who took on leadership roles during construction of the railway, from Oodnadatta to Darwin
- the indispensable role of immigration, with thousands of Afghan, Chinese, Greek, White Russian, Welsh Patagonians, Italian, Irish and Maltese workers
- hard manual labour and life in the railway camps
- the women who ran railway hotels and tearooms
- the role of railway volunteers during World War Two
- the ‘Romance of the Rail’, with nearly 100 years of travel on the Ghan between South Australia and the Northern Territory
- the critical role of modern railway maintenance teams across remote Australia.
The 272-page hard cover book has been published by the AustralAsia Railway Corporation (representing the South Australian and Northern Territory Governments) to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the new Alice Springs to Darwin standard gauge railway.
Dr Jane Munday is a social researcher and community engagement practitioner based in Darwin, Northern Territory. Born and raised in Adelaide, she has lived and worked in the Northern Territory since 1994.
