The Indian Pacific is one of Australia’s most popular icons and the four-day trip from Sydney across the Nullabor to Perth is Australia’s longest train journey and one of the world’s best.
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For passengers who want to get on or off along the way there’s 86 available stops on the 4352 kilometre transcontinental trip and Orange, or at least East Fork, is one of them.
For people unfamiliar with this East Fork ‘siding’, it could at best be described as little more than a small open-front outdoor dunny or 1950s bus shelter with a single board seat perched on a steel and timber platform.
Access is by a narrow dirt track off Forest Road, although the entrance is almost hidden by undergrowth. You wouldn’t know it was there if it wasn’t for a sign, also in among the trees.
Surely Orange deserves much better. It’s just not good enough for a city our size, not only for the sake of thousands of Indian Pacific passengers who must wonder what sort of a place Orange is when they see this third world structure but for Orange people who want to board the train or get off there.
The Indian Pacific goes through Orange at night on its way to Perth and the return trip gets back to East Fork at 4.26am so imagine freezing to death in the winter or getting soaked when it’s wet.
Adding to the discomfort is a lone lamp and there’s no toilet or other facilities.
It’s not as though the Indian Pacific is a new service with its first trip from Sydney Central in February 1970.
That’s 47 years ago and this thing at East Fork has been there since.
UNLEARNING IN SESSION
Academics at the University of Sydney wanting something to do rather than simply looking out the window and want students to ‘unlearn’ so they can “challenge the established and question the accepted…”
It’s an idea that’s been around since the 15th century but because the university has just adopted it as something modern we should extend the notion and encourage everyone to forget what they’ve always done and then do something new and innovative.
For example the people responsible for all those concrete blisters and islands that have sprung up all over Orange could unlearn what these wheel busters are supposed to do and then for something beneficial rip them all out.
The same applies to the Brown’s cows’ pedestrian crossing in Anson Street.
That would be an excellent exercise in getting rid of an awful old idea and coming up with something new. And what about unlearning all your bad driving habits like tail-gating, not indicating leaving roundabouts and changing lanes and then learning again from scratch? So, maybe unlearning has its benefits.
DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY
The council is seeking expressions of interest for development of the land it bought on the corner of Summer and Woodward streets, suggesting there’s lots of possibilities for the site.
The old shop and house that was there was demolished and despite council’s development plans we’ve already had a huge benefit.
Drivers approaching the roundabout from the east can now see other vehicles on the right as far back as the Woodward St traffic lights and it’s made the corner 200 per cent safer than what it was.
So let’s hope nothing is built there to again block driver vision.