Slow train coming: SBS to air 17-hour Ghan trip on Sunday

Following the success/controversy of airing a three-hour extract of a train trip through the Australian outback, SBS has decided to air a 17-hour version of the journey on Sunday.

Marketed as Australia’s first foray into the Norwegian genre of slow TV, the program showed – without ad breaks – a driver’s seat view of the famous passenger train on its 3,000km trip from Adelaide to Darwin.

Due to its popularity, SBS station Viceland will air the uninterrupted 17 hours from 2.40am on Sunday.

The three hour version “got the nation talking, trending nationally on social media, and recorded an average of 583,000 viewers in metro and regional markets throughout the three hour program, making this the highest performing SBS program in the past 12 months,” SBS said to explain the novel programming decision.

The vision of outback scenery and train tracks was accompanied by text explaining the local history of each new area – with a focus on Indigenous history and early European, Chinese and Afghan immigrants.

Even the 17-hour clip is an edited version. The actual journey of the Ghan goes for 54 hours and is the world’s longest passenger train, stopping at Alice Springs and Katherine over the course of three days before arriving at Darwin.