What rail does here
There is no high-speed rail in Oceania and there is no network. Five of the seven services are journeys people fly in to take.
The crossings
Continent-scale journeys. People fly in to take these.
Three thousand kilometres through the centre of Australia, and the emptiness is the attraction. The northbound journey takes three days and two nights; the southbound Ghan Expedition adds a third night and a full Coober Pedy experience. Fares include meals, drinks and off-train excursions, which is why the headline price looks steep. Gold Twin cabins are snug with bunks; Platinum buys a proper double and a lot of money.
Ocean to ocean across the continent, including the longest straight stretch of railway track in the world — exactly as hypnotic and monotonous as it sounds. Sydney to Perth takes four days and three nights; the eastbound journey takes five days and four nights because it includes more off-train experiences. The shorter Adelaide–Perth leg delivers most of the drama for less time and money. The fare is all-inclusive, with the same cabin grades as the Ghan.
The coast lines
New Zealand's two great runs, and the climb to Kuranda.
Five hours across the Southern Alps — braided rivers, beech forest, and a viaduct-and-tunnel climb to Arthur's Pass — and it deserves its reputation as one of the world's great rail journeys. The open-air viewing carriage is where to spend the mountain sections, and it is cold; take a jacket even in summer. Most people ride out and back in a day, which works, though Arthur's Pass makes a better stop than Greymouth.
The Coastal Pacific runs between the Pacific and the Kaikōura ranges with seals on the rocks below, and it connects with the Interislander ferry at Picton, which makes it a genuinely practical link between the islands. The Northern Explorer crosses the volcanic plateau and the Raurimu Spiral but has long dull stretches either side. Both are seasonal or reduced in winter — check before building a route around them.
The Spirit of Queensland's RailBed seats lie fully flat and are the only proper business-class-style beds on Australian rail, which makes a long coastal run genuinely restful. Kuranda is the famous one: a two-hour climb past Barron Falls through fifteen tunnels, usually paired with the Skyrail gondola for the return so you see the rainforest from both angles. Book Kuranda ahead in dry season — it fills with day trippers from Cairns.
Actual transport
Sydney to Melbourne in eleven hours, and V/Line around Victoria. That is the whole of it.
The Blue Mountains line is the one to actually use — a two-hour double-decker run from Central to Katoomba on an Opal card, and far better than driving up on a weekend. The long-haul XPT to Melbourne is a different matter: eleven hours against a ninety-minute flight, on 1980s stock. Take it if you like trains or dislike flying; nobody takes it to save time. Sleeper berths on the Brisbane service are basic but do the job.
Ordinary regional trains that happen to be extraordinarily cheap — Victoria capped regional fares in 2023, so a two-hour run to Bendigo costs about the same as a city tram ride. That makes the goldfields towns and Geelong easy days out without a car. It does not reach the Great Ocean Road itself; the train gets you to Geelong or Warrnambool and a bus or hire car does the rest.