Journeying on the historic Southern Aurora means recapturing the romance of times gone by on the faithfully restored vintage train and in the Riverina region beyond.

A flock of galahs scatters as the Southern Aurora barrels across the wheat belt of regional NSW. The birds rise into the air, their rosy bellies glowing fuchsia in the evening sun. A white mare flicks its tail. A family of eastern grey kangaroos bound beyond the gum trees. The railway track stretches on and on, cutting a line as straight and clean as a freshly ploughed furrow before the sowing.

Travelling on the Southern Aurora

This is the Riverina – the agricultural heartland of NSW. I’m experiencing it aboard the historic Southern Aurora as part of Vintage Rail Journeys’ five-day loop through the region, calling in at rural stations along the way. The Southern Aurora is the former overnight express that once ferried passengers between Sydney/Warrane and Melbourne/Naarm in the 1960s to ’80s – the last golden age of rail before air travel took over.

Onboard, the cabins have been preserved in all their mid-century glory, right down to the sleek lettering, original light fixtures and the ingenious way the furniture folds away, making my cosy cabin feel roomier than it is. But the Southern Aurora nearly didn’t survive at all.

After it was decommissioned, the carriages lay discarded until they were acquired by the Australian Railway Historical Society. A team of volunteers set about restoring them, scrubbing decades of diesel and soot from the steel, labouring together for no other reason than the belief that it was worth saving.

Now, the train charges through NSW as if nothing has changed, its fluted silver carriages glinting in the sun as it cleaves the state’s wide, working plains.

Alighting in Bowral

“Roll up, folks, roll up!" Craig Robson bellows to our group over the cacophonous swell of carnival music. The sound blares from a brilliantly painted merry-go-round, its ornate fairground lettering a promise for what’s to come: THRILLS. FUN. THE MAGIC.

We’ve alighted in Bowral to visit Fairground Follies, one of the most comprehensive collections of antique mechanical instruments in the world, thanks to Craig’s 60-plus years of collecting and restoring.

Mechanical instruments, a staple of fairgrounds in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, are a complex choreography of hand cranks, valves and pipes designed to run without electricity.

Craig guides us through his collection – dancing and swinging us around arm in arm to the noise of bright, reedy overtures. “It’s some of the happiest music in the world," he says. “It takes you back to a time when there were no worries."

Despite its age, the technology is magical to behold. Mechanisms behind the facades animate carved figures, so it appears the statues themselves are playing the music. A drummer boy beats his drum. An accordionist cocks his head and articulates his fingers.

Pianos play seemingly of their own accord. But my favourite is the jazz-playing robots – and when the 2.4-metre-tall saxophonist-robot stands up to ‘play’ a solo, I can’t help but grin with childlike amazement.

But this magic is hard won. Some machines have taken over 15 years to restore. When I ask Craig why, he doesn’t hesitate: “It’s the beauty of the craft. The craft of carving, the craft of music, the craft of colour."

The view from onboard

In his late career, the artist Pablo Picasso experimented with one-line drawings – renderings of figures and animals sketched in a single, unbroken line. Without lifting his pen from the page, the maestro captured the elegance of form and movement.

Watching the Riverina pass from the Southern Aurora feels much the same. But instead, I become the unlifted pen, tracing the landscape in an unbroken line as it unfolds in snapshots: a weatherboard shack in a wheatfield, steel windpumps turning in the distance, silos rising from golden fields like Brutalist monuments.

I drift through the train as we travel – reading in my cabin, sipping ice-cold G&Ts in the bar car, lingering over slow dining in the Art Deco-style Queen Adelaide Restaurant. Today, it’s braised duck and squid-ink risotto for lunch, with a ruby-red glass of pinot noir. It’s so easy to let the country slip by this way.

Each night, we pull into a railyard to sleep in stillness, and in the morning I wake to the gentle rocking of the train, flicking open the shutters to meet the landscape as it stirs.

Food and history in Junee and Coolamon

The next day is devoted to good food. We begin at the Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory, sampling raspberry licorice so fresh the seeds show through the glossy casing. Lunch is at the Coolamon Cheese factory, where we’re greeted by a generous spread of pies, sandwiches and charcuterie. I help myself to a hunk of sharp cheddar made mere metres away.

Afterwards, there’s time to explore Coolamon. I wander into the Up-To-Date Store, a heritage-listed former general store turned museum run by volunteers.

Bill Pippen is minding the shop, so to speak. He’s a long-time local with a stoic demeanour and dry wit. “Watch this," he says.

Bill loads what looks like a small bowling ball into a contraption, sending it rattling along an overhead railway across the room. It’s an old cash railway, he says, once used to send coins and receipts to a central till, with change returned the same way. A small piece of mechanical magic.

Bill shows me a few old photographs of the town. One captures the very room we’re in, over a century ago. It’s stacked with wares and crowded with hatted farmers. Another shows farmers raking in teepee-shaped stacks of hay.

“Hay-stooking," Bill says. “I used to do this when I was young. It’s hard work."

I tell him I don’t think I could manage. Bill looks me up and down and fires back: “No, you wouldn’t." It’s a fair read – as it often is out in these parts.

Historic heirlooms in Temora

One of our final stops is Temora Rural Museum, a collection of everyday objects from the past two centuries. There are hangars of fire trucks, tractors and ambulances – showcasing old vehicles from horse-drawn stretchers to gleaming 1960s Fords. There are old spaces preserved in situ: a dance hall, a bushman’s cottage, a weatherboard chapel. I step inside to find sunlight spilling across the pews: I sit for a moment, letting the warmth settle on my skin.

The museum displays everything a town could ever have needed, including small objects, too: clothes and wedding dresses, hand-made furniture, children’s toys, tools blunted with use.

“It’s like a family," says museum curator Bill Speirs. “You learn about who you are and where you come from through heirlooms passed down. It’s hard to understand yourself, or your community, without knowing that foundation."

It strikes me then, that so much of what I’ve seen on this journey isn’t just about preserving the past. The train, the carnival instruments, the general store – they’re lineages: stories of how we travelled, how we celebrated, how we lived.

And so much of it was nearly lost or forgotten. It’s a reminder that you never quite know what will become invaluable down the track, what might be worth holding onto. But I already know this trip will be.

Back on the train, I settle into the bar car with a glass of wine by the window. I watch the scenery unspool until sundown, tracing the landscape in a long, unbroken line.

Travel details

Getting there: Running in 2027 from February to May, the five-day Riverina tour with Vintage Rail Journeys will depart every second Monday from Sydney/Warrane’s Central Station. Prices from $4090 per person.

Route highlights: The rail journey explores regional NSW’s flavours and history, with highlight stops including Bowral in the Southern Highlands, Griffith and Junee in the Riverina, and Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. Sample treats at spots such as Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory, sip sustainably crafted drops at Yarran Wines and dive into the past at Temora Rural Museum.

More Vintage Rail Journeys: In addition to special event tours such as Bathurst Race’N Rail, Vintage Rail Journeys also offers a North Coast Rail tour and Golden West Rail tour.