“THE train due to arrive on platform one at 16.00 hours is more than 100 years late.”

No, it’s not a poor joke about our shameful railways, but a true tale of Australia’s famed Outback train, the Ghan, poised to make history next month by linking Alice Springs to Darwin by rail for the first time.

The continent’s final great transport route, the line was legislated for 130 years ago by the South Australian Parliament and mentioned by John Hope, the first Governor-General, at the opening of the first Federal Parliament. He said that a rail link between the Northern Territory and the southern states was of national importance. It’s been a long time coming.

It’s flagged by brochures as “one of the world’s great train journeys”, covering 1,850 miles (2,979km) from Adelaide through Alice Springs to Darwin. The new link covers the final 400 miles (642km) between Alice Springs and Darwin and will boost tourism to Australia’s often-overlooked Top End, home to genuine Crocodile Dundee-style Outback, aboriginal culture and national parks rich in birds, reptiles and marsupials.

Ticket sales for the extended 47-hour, two-night journey had already topped £2 million within five weeks of timetables being released last July, a response which Stephen Bradford, chief executive of the Great Southern Railway described as “well ahead of expectation”.

Australians may be laid-back, but they know how to host a party, and there will be much fanfare, flags and bunting as the Ghan makes its inaugural journey from Adelaide on February 1, at a one-off price of £1,042 per ticket. This will be nothing, however, compared with the celebrations in Darwin when it arrives at 4pm two days later.

Paula Timson, from the Northern Territory Tourist Commission, claims that it’s not just a train, but a vital bargaining tool to open up the region and persuade international airlines to come to Darwin. “We know there are people out there who collect the world’s best train journeys and we want them here. I can’t tell you how terrific it is and how excited we are. We’ve waited a very long time for this. It ’s going to be some party,” she said.

Passengers taking the once-weekly journey in either direction will be able to observe some of Australia’s harshest terrain and highest temperatures in air-conditioned comfort. Some say the Outback is boring, but little beats the first time you see kangaroos bouncing alongside the tracks, and the landscape seen from the Ghan is more varied than that from the Indian Pacific, its sister train, which links Sydney to Perth across the interminably flat Nullarbor Plain .

Starting in the temperate wine-growing region north of Adelaide, the “silver” train, with its stainless steel carriages, snakes its way through soft green hills to the harsh red outline of the MacDonnell Ranges surrounding Alice Springs, gateway to Uluru.

For those continuing to Darwin, the scenery changes yet again to tropical rainforest after a stop in Katherine with an optional boat or helicopter tour of the waterfalls and canyons of Katherine Gorge.

Dave Atherton, Rail Australia’s UK sales manager, expects the new Ghan link to appeal to backpackers, keen rail enthusiasts and older independent travellers. Prices for the full journey range from £204 for a Red Kangaroo Service daynighter (reclining) seat with showers at the end of the corridor and no meals, to £806 for a Gold Kangaroo Service sleeper with en suite, three meals a day and welcome cocktail reception.

He described the food on board as “generous Aussie portions with a gourmet twist.”

There will be no kangaroo or emu, both popular in city restaurants, presumably because people don’t want to eat the wildlife they can see out of the window. Instead, choices will include salt water barramundi with braised capsicum and desert lime aioli, beef fillet with native pepper hollandaise, or roast chicken with bunya nut and redcurrant stuffing.

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