The Central Australia Railway was key to the transport of equipment, supplies and troops during the Second World War. Before the war, trains to Alice Springs would run twice a week, increasing during the war by an extra 56 per week.
For perspective: during the year ending 30 June 1940, 13,679 passengers travelled on the Commonwealth Railways' (CR) Alice Springs line. Four years later it was 98,858.1
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So great was the demand that an extra 32 South Australian Railways T class locomotives had to be hired in.2 Of course extra locomotives meant extra work and a call out for CR workers saw hundreds of men arrive from New South Wales and Victoria to assist the war effort.
While their help was much appreciated one local worker, Keith Easton, remembers a few difficulties:
"Victorians in the main were trained – they’d seen a train. But some of the New South Wales men I don’t think they would know a train. Then again, they’d come on strange engines, completely different set of firing, completely different altogether."3
It was not just the workers who found the narrow gauge line different from home. Troops also found the limitations of the line and the slower speed limits difficult to comprehend, especially those who were accustomed to fast urban train systems where lateness was measured in minutes, not in hours as was common on this outback railway.4
Despite their differences the war years were a time for camaraderie among CR workers from all states, leading to the formation of "The Curdipedirka Club".
1 Pearce, K, "Riding the Wire Fence to Alice” p. 32
2 Babbage, J "History of the Pichi Richi Railway”, 1977, p. 8
3 Pearce, K "Riding the Wire Fence to Alice”, p. 37
4 Pearce, K "Riding the Wire Fence to Alice”, p. 32