The Ghan for more freight to travel through the region, leading to a hope that Darwin will serve as another trade link with Asia. In preparation for the connection to Darwin, one of the locomotives was named after Steve Irwin in a hope that the internationally recognised face of Australia would help promote the new service and tourism to the region. The modern Ghan has featured in an episode of Channel 5's series "Chris Tarrant: Extreme Railways", and the Mighty Trains series. It was also the subject of a slow television documentary called 'The Ghan: Australia's Greatest Train Journey'. The entire journey
The Ghan contrary view is that the name was a veiled insult. In 1891, the railway from Quorn reached remote Oodnadatta where an itinerant population of around 150 cameleers were based, generically called "Afghans". "The Ghan Express" name originated with train crews in the 1890s as a taunt to officialdom because, when an expensive sleeping car was put on from Quorn to Oodnadatta, "on the first return journey the only passenger was an Afghan", mocking its commercial viability. By as early as 1924, because of the notorious unreliability of this fortnightly steam train, European pastoralists commonly called it "in ribald fashion The