WWII steam Alice Springs
General Douglas MacArthur arrival in Australia began with his railway journey - the brief back-story is explaining the three different rail gauges (widths between the tracks) used in Australia.
In the 1940s, different states used one or more of three different gauges for a variety of political, economic and historical reasons. South Australia used all three. They were narrow gauge (3ft 6ins or 1067 mm), broad gauge (5 3 or 1600 mm) and standard gauge (4 8.5 or 1435 mm).
Since the 1990s, most of the long distance trains have been converted to standard gauge, so passengers can now traverse the country more conveniently. But this isn t universal, and there are still some areas where the gauges vary, for one practical reason or another.