I was a Fettler at Abminga in about 1977. I was 21, and had hitch hiked up the east coast of Australia up to
Darwin - and then down to
Alice Springs. Somehow, I heard of a job going as a fettler on the old Ghan Railway - and thought it would be an adventure, and help me top up my depleted savings. So I signed up, and found myself on, an ancient carriage of the Ghan heading for the centre of Australia at Abminga siding. Someone had forgotten to tell me that I was replacing a chap that had been shot dead at the
camp about a month before! There were bullet holes in the
camp fridge & some disturbing paintings done by the shooting victim - who had supposedly gone off his head - and the following court case was still going on - needless to say, this didnt inspire a lot of confidence in me. Abminga sat on a gibber plain - and the siding consisted of
camp accomodation in a T, with about 8 bedrooms forming the top of the T, and the middle section was the muster room with a table where you ate etc. Top middle of the T was the kitchen - where the designated
camp cook would fix meals for the rest of the crew (I ended up being the
cook for a month or two - when the other guy left - mainly because, you got more money - as you had to get up early to light the stove and fix breakfast etc} There was a building to the rear of the kitchen where we showered - hot
water supplied by a 44 gallon drum on its side with four legs - called a "donkey" - that you lit a fire under every day for hot
water to shower in - in summer that wasnt necessary! Near the track was a small shed where our little track petrol powered track/maintenance vehicle & tools were kept. Casting a shadow over the siding was the tall
water tank - which we used to pump groundwater into for use in the
camp. The crew was about 4/5 men, mostly
young - some escaping the law. The crew was run by a ganger - or head fettler who ran the crew. Communication with
Alice Springs was via a hard wired telephone/box - that was on the wall in the eating area - and each siding on the railway had a code like Morse that proceeded a message - so you knew the message was for Abminga. Our job was to maintain the track on our section of the track - and we would drive out on our little rail putt putt, and replace the odd sleeper or straighten the track as required. Very occasionally a supervisor would come through to check on us - but because the land was so flat - we could see the puff of dust coming on the horizon, as his little track vehicle headed to us - and we would get back on the track - to give him a good show of us working - then we would watch him go to the next horizon, and down tools - lol! We had a little ramp that we carried on the vehicle - in which we could take it off the track if The Ghan or other trains were coming through. Our supplies came through on special supply trains - as did our pay. When the supply train left there was a stack of Southwark beer cartons almost to the roof - a lot of drinking went on in these camps. We used to jump in our track vehicle, and visit the camps to the north and south of Abminga to socialise, and have a beer with the other fettlers on the weekends - rattling back to Abminga in the dark with our headlight beam illuminating the track - or occasionally following the rear light of a train, as we headed back to
camp. One weekend, myself, and another
young fetttler decided to go south to
Oodnadatta - so we jumped on a flatbed of a passing train - spent most of the day baking in the sun till we arrived in the late afternoon in
Oodnadatta. We booked into the pub - and lucky for us, one of the local police was having a sendoff party - and we ended up drinking free beer and food for the night. I spent about 4 and a half months at Abminga, as a fettler, before deciding to return to
Devonport in Tassie to continue playing football for the
Devonport Magpies. The photos above trigger many memories of the days when it was a working
camp on the original Ghan Railways - and it was an adventure to work there!