page_title: Marree, South Australia
section_title: Early transportation
hierarchical_section_title: Marree, South Australia / Early transportation
caption_attribution_description: Preserved NSU class diesel locomotive in Marree (Australia) by urban-b.de
context_page_description: Marree is a small town located in the north of South Australia. It lies 589 kilometres North of Adelaide at the junction of the Oodnadatta Track and the Birdsville Track, 49 metres above sea level. Marree is an important service centre for the large sheep and cattle stations in northeast South Australia as well as a stopover destination for tourists traveling along the Birdsville or Oodnadatta Tracks.
  The area is the home of the Dieri Aboriginal people. At the 2011 census, the Marree census district which includes the entire northeastern corner of South Australia had a population of 634, with 70% of the population being male. The town of Marree has a population of approximately 150 persons. The major areas of employment are mining, agriculture and accommodation services.
  The town was home to Australia's first mosque, which was made of mud brick and built by the Afghan cameleers employed at Marree's inception. At the turn of the 20th century the town was divided in two, with Europeans on one side and Afghans and Aborigines on the other.
context_section_description: The Central Australia Railway reached the town in 1883 and the first train ran in January 1884. The town became a major railhead for the cattle industry. In the 1920s the railway was extended north from the town to Alice Springs. After opening in 1929 it became the route of the passenger train which became known as The Ghan. In 1957, a standard gauge line was built south from Marree on a flatter alignment to facilitate the movement of coal from the Leigh Creek Coalfield to Port Augusta. That made Marree a break-of-gauge on The Ghan service because the remainder of the line was still narrow gauge. In 1980 the narrow gauge line from Marree to Alice Springs closed when the Adelaide to Alice Springs line was rebuilt much further west. In 1986 the standard gauge line to Marree was closed north of the coal mine and the town lost its railway connection completely.
  Marree was also the home of Tom Kruse, one of the men who drove the mail trucks from Marree to Birdsville in Queensland, a distance of some 700 kilometres. This route crosses some of the most challenging sandy and stony desert country in Australia, and it was a remarkable feat for fully loaded trucks to make the run at all. A collection of hundreds of photographs, documents and memorabilia from Kruse's Birdsville mail run are on display at the Marree Hotel.
caption: Former Commonwealth Railways NSU class locomotive at Marree railway station
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