The passenger train to Adelaide from Oodnadatta ran once a fortnight and was part of the Great Northern Railway Line. Oodnadatta is located in the heart of the desert, 1011 kilometres north of Adelaide. The name is derived from the Arrernte word 'utnadata', which means "mulga blossom". Oodnadatta was officially proclaimed a Government Township on October 30, 1890, some thirty years after John McDouall Stuart first explored the region. It became one of the interior’s central hubs after the railway was extended to reach Oodnadatta in 1891. Given its central locality to the northern and southern stock routes, the town functioned primarily as a transportation/trucking base for the cattle trade. By the 1920s Oodnadatta had become a busy little township, with the railway staff, the Overland Telegraph, and the surrounding cattle stations contributing to an ongoing rush of activity. As Bryan Bowman, a frequent visitor to Oodnadatta during this time, remembers ‘…every week you would see long lines of trucks on the spur line waiting for cattle.’
References: Bryan Bowman, 'History of Central Australia 1930-1980',Bowman, 1989,p 5 Pamela Rajkowski, 'In the Tracks of the Camelmen', Angus & Robertson, Sydney & London, 1987, p 61