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On Christmas day 1870, the construction party had reached Pine Creek, having completed 250 kms of line. They celebrated in true 'Aussie' style. They had a barbecue of bullock and held a sports day where they played 'grinning through a horse-collar' and 'bobbing at the duff'. Further north in Port Darwin the festivities were celebrated with much gusto including plenty of grog.

It was a good break for the hard working parties, in fact too good for one man, an armourer called Bob Collard. He was found dead on New Year's Eve in a ditch with his arm affectionately wrapped around the head of an enormous rock python, which was desperately trying to get away.

Not all the Northern Territory snakes were as friendly though. One deadly species bit and killed a horse in ten minutes and the supervisor of one of the parties fortunately squashed a snake in his boot before it could bite his foot.

The food situation was even worse. The weevils in the flour swelled and burst in the dough in the camp oven, making the bread look like currant cake, and no-one would eat the rice, which was alive with tiny grubs.

To make matters worse, the rain had really set in. It wasn't unusual to have 70mm in an hour, or 250mm in a day. Tracks became rivers and as soon as the holes for the poles were dug, they filled with water. They simply couldn't progress south fast enough to escape the effect of the rain.

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