Michael Portillo ventures Down Under to explore Australia by train. He begins by riding the legendary Ghan Railway, a train almost a kilometre in length and hauled by two locomotives, which covers nearly 2,000 miles across Australia's red centre. Michael traces its route from the southern harbour of Port Augusta to Darwin on the north coast, along the way meeting the indigenous people of Alice Springs, visiting a kangaroo sanctuary and joining Australians to mark the anniversary of Anzac Day, the First Word War battle that defined their nation.

Michael Portillo embarks on a rail adventure aboard the transcontinental Indian Pacific Railway, from the southern port city of Adelaide, South Australia, 1,700 miles deep into the desert, to the gold rush town of Kalgoorlie, and finishes in Perth, Western Australia.