The Ghan railway journey, Darwin to Adelaide, Australia
How The Ghan railway journey, Darwin to Adelaide, Australia makes a difference
Environment
Waste:
- In 2011, we achieved Bronze level in Business SA’s Green Accreditation program.
- Accreditation was achieved through assessment of its Integrated Safety Management System and aligns with the Australian Standard ISO14001:2004. A plan for further system development to achieve Silver level by the end of 2012 has been put in place.
- The attainment of formal recognition supports our commitment to environmental sustainability with a focus on legislative compliance, resource use efficiency, waste management, recycling and zero environmental harm.
- Environmental initiatives are managed as a formal agenda item through our Safety Consultative Committee, Executive Safety Committee and the Board Safety Committee.
Water:
Recent major achievements include:
- An investment of $6M to retro-fit all toilets throughout the fleet with a retention tank system that is supported by a direct to sewer extraction system installed at the Adelaide terminal. This replaces the legacy “drop through” system originally installed by the Australian government.
- Reducing water consumption on train and halving the quantity taken onboard at remote locations such as Cook (mid-Nullabor) through a water awareness program for guests and crew. This is backed by selective monitoring and reporting on water usage on each train journey.
- Encouraging guests to reuse towels on train.
Community
Friends and Neighbours:
- We are working with over 150 tourism industry product suppliers (29 operators and 32 hotels in the Northern Territory), mainly accommodation, local transport and tour providers predominantly in regional areas.
- Whilst we directly sold in excess of $20M of these providers’ products, extrapolation of data from studies into the regional benefits of tourism derived from travel on our trains suggests the overall level of economic value added is in the order of $400M per annum to the tourism economy.
Volunteering and Charity:
- We work closely with the RSL to engage the community in a shared celebration of ANZAC Day through a now annual event ‘The Ghan’s ANZAC Tribute’.
- The Ghan’s ANZAC Tribute is a celebration and commemoration of Australia’s military history and raises money and awareness for the RSL.
- We work with the RSL and local communities enroute to plan a collaborative Dawn Service and ensuing Gunfire Breakfast which is open to the local community and features a well known performer.
- As part of this event we also put on a free community concert in Katherine, planned in conjunction with Nitmiluk tours, a wholly owned and operated Indigenous Tour Operator in Katherine.
- The performance includes indigenous Jawoyn Aboriginal Dancing and ‘Welcome to Country’.
- Nitmiluk’s involvement in the Katherine event assists in engaging the Katherine community
- The range of off-train events in Alice Springs and Katherine engage the local communities, and enable them to share in a joint-celebration of The ANZACs and demonstrated respect of local customs and culture.
The Ghan railway journey, Darwin to Adelaide, Australia
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