I found a worthy alternative to Australia’s luxe sleeper train – it’s a bargain

Australia’s 4,000km-long Indian Pacific train route has long topped my bucket list, but with the four-day journey across the country from Perth to Sydney costing from A$3,090 (£1,600) to A$20,990 (£10,890) for the most expensive suite, I won’t be ticking it off any time soon. Step in “The Prospector”, a comparatively short (by Australian standards) seven-hour train ride eastwards from Perth to Kalgoorlie, Australia’s largest Outback city. For 653km, The Prospector traverses the same tracks and scenery as the Indian Pacific, but with tickets costing as little as A$100 (£52) each way, this was an Outback journey I could afford. Kalgoorlie, a dusty “city” of 30,000 people, was founded in 1893 when a trio of Irish prospectors sparked a gold rush. Its name is derived from the indigenous Wangkatha word loosely meaning “place of silky pears”, and it boomed on top of one of the world’s richest seams of gold. Shorts By 1897, railway tracks extended from Perth to Kalgoorlie. Today, The Prospector, a daily service launched in 1971, remembers the gold rush pioneers who braved the same route eastwards in search of fortunes. The old Gold mines near Kalgoorlie (Photo: delectus/Getty/E+) I set off from Perth’s Midland Station at 7.30am. Just two wagons long, The Prospector still offers generous legroom, on-board entertainment systems and Wi-Fi (even in the Outback). Unlike the Indian Pacific, there is no fine dining, but friendly conductors served a feast of classic Australian snacks (including Mrs Mac’s Pies and sushi rolls) from the buffet and bar. After trundling through Perth’s suburbs, we punched through the overcast Avon Valley and into the sparsely populated Wheatbelt. For the next three hours, the view was one of monochrome fields, endless blue skies and the occasional combine harvester. Merredin, the half-way point between Perth and Kalgoorlie, afforded a brief break to stretch my legs on the platform as we awaited the arrival of The Prospector service travelling in the other direction for a crew changeover. Merredin (population 2,000) is a vital interchange in the middle of what seems like nowhere. Thanks to plentiful water supplies (from a dam that collects rainfall from Merredin Peak’s run-off) in an otherwise semi-arid landscape, pioneers stopped here on their long and often arduous overland journeys into Western Australia’s goldfields. The railway reached Merredin in 1893. As prospectors struck gold further east, the tracks were extended to Southern Cross (100km down the line) and eventually on to Kalgoorlie (another 200km beyond). The railway still follows the trail of Western Australia’s gold rush, albeit with more comfort and speed, and The Prospector was fully booked with a mixture of tourists, backpackers and modern gold miners heading east. Around Southern Cross (four hours from Perth), red dust finally replaced the wheat fields, and we rolled into Kalgoorlie just after 2pm. A short walk in dry, 30°C heat brought me to Hannan Street, where I found a statue of Paddy Hannan, an Irish prospector who struck gold here in 1893. The town of Kalgoorlie in Australia (Photo: Hans Wismeijer/Getty/ iStock Editorial) This was the Golden Mile (now two miles long), Kalgoorlie’s main thoroughfare, which locals say is built atop a solid seam of gold. Hannan Street is lined with Federation-style architecture dating to the 1890s, including a towering courthouse with a gilded clock tower, and historic taverns like the turn-of-the-century Exchange Hotel and York Hotel. I was staying at the Palace Hotel, the oldest tavern of all, and home to a lively Irish bar packed with miners in hi-vis and dusty red boots. The decor has changed little since it opened in 1897. Kalgoorlie’s gold rush attracted workers from across the world. In the lobby, I found an excerpt of a love poem said to have been written to a barmaid by a Herbert Hoover – a mining engineer who later became the 31st US President – alongside an ornate mirror that he gifted to the Palace Hotel. It’s a typically Kalgoorlie story. The city’s bars are infamous, and a sign in the visitors’ centre warns tourists which bars are staffed by “skimpies” (scantily clad barmaids). Tourist information staff even recommended a tour of Casa Questa. “It’s Australia’s oldest brothel,” I was proudly told of the 120-year-old establishment, which is also a museum. “The 87-year-old matron runs tours.” Instead, I joined a vintage tram tour. Gold is plentiful here but water is scarce, and the first stop was Mount Charlotte, the terminus of an ambitious pipeline, opened in 1903, which carries fresh water 556km from Perth. The water was, and still is, vital for mining. A gold bar from the gold mines in Kalgoorlie (Photo: JohnCarnemolla/Getty/iStockphoto) At 3.5km long and more than 600m deep, the Super Pit was the largest open-cut gold mine in Australia until 2015 (it is now the second largest after Boddington, outside Perth), and Kalgoorlie’s biggest tourist attraction. The Museum of the Goldfields hosts the state’s largest collection of gold, including a 23kg nugget found by a metal detectorist. Several tour companies offer an introduction to prospecting, or “fossicking”, where anyone with a licence (only A$29.50/£15) can seek their fortune in the gold fields. After an evening of craft beers at the modern Beaten Track Brewery, I found the Indian Pacific, which stops here on its eastbound journey to Sydney, idling in Kalgoorlie’s station the next afternoon. The Indian Pacific’s long carriages dwarfed The Prospector, but as I waited for my 3pm departure back to Perth, I was content to have spent just $200 (£105) on a return ticket that gave me an enjoyable and satisfying glimpse of Western Australia’s vast and varied Outback. How to do it Tickets, starting from A$100.85 (£53) each way, can be booked via TransWA. Vintage tram tours cost A$60pp (£32) and are booked through the Kalgoorlie Visitor Centre. Where to stay Doubles at the Palace Hotel start from A$200 (£104). More information Westernaustralia.com