By Paul Nyberg

Photo courtesy Terry Hayes, Dottie Hayes was able to read the latest issue of the Town Crier on her Blackberry.

The famous Ghan Train, which bisects Australia from north to south, first attracted Town Crier Train Tour travelers to the country. And while the Ghan lived up to all expectations, the breadth of cultural and natural wealth throughout this island nation also mesmerized first timers. From brekky (Aussie for breakfast) on the Sydney waterfront to champagne sunset toasts at the base of the mysterious monolith, Ayers Rock, which juts 1,000 feet in the air in the Outback, the trip was one surprise after another.

Sydney, a blend of San Francisco’s waterfront and Chicago’s robust skyline, has a user-friendliness that matches downtown Los Altos. One can climb up and over Sydney’s famous bridge, a majestic arch, for $160. And the Sydney Opera House, one of the most photographed man-made structures in the world, deserves the attention it gets.

Founded in the late 18th century, Sydney was an outpost for convicts deported with their families from England. Many had been convicted for something as minor as stealing a loaf of bread to feed their children. Today it is the capital of New South Wales and boasts its own parliament house.

A premier and a parliament rule the government. We were able to sit in the gallery in Sydney on the day they were aggressively, to say the least, debating which items to include on the following week’s agenda. On tap were some subjects very familiar to Americans: a) whether the government should install pornography filters in the public library computers (they had already put filters in school libraries), b) to what degree lowering taxes would energize the economy and c) how to control petrol theft.

Newspapers are popular in this English-speaking nation. Local editions in Sydney, Adelaide, Alice Springs, Darwin and Cairns and a national paper like USA Today had plenty of fodder. The very day we stepped off the 15-hour flight from San Francisco headlines blared “Steve Irwin Killed.” The sadness expressed throughout the world over this tragic accident was deeply sensed by citizens of his homeland.

The press, city by city, also seemed obsessed with another contemporary subject: immigration. The influx of Muslims in the past decade evidently has created demand for a fresh review of the standards for citizenship, which seemed to boil down to two: English as the official national language and the assimilation of Australian values. (Paradoxically, a day or so after we arrived back in the United States, a headline in the San Jose Mercury asked: “What are American values?”

Los Altos Hills resident Ann Duwe planned this Town Crier Train Tour, as she has others. Stays in upscale hotels, prearranged tours of significant museums, parks, zoos and a performance in the famed Opera House made every day unique.

We found the cuisine very American, with the exception that buffet dinners invariably offered the options of kangaroo (like venison) or crocodile (like chicken).

The biggest disappointment for the Los Altans was that the coffee was usually instant!