Vanishing on the Ghan
June 1978: a man bolts his compartment door on Australia's loneliest train. By the morning tea round, he's gone — and the door is still bolted.
An Australian print-and-play murder mystery for one to six players. Read the police file, question the suspects, work out how a man leaves a sealed compartment — at your own kitchen table.
Get the case — $19 →Instant PDF download · Secure Stripe checkout · 14-day refund
A sealed compartment. An empty desert. A man who is simply gone.
Friday, 23 June 1978. Claude Hollister bolts his sleeping-compartment door at twenty to ten. By the morning tea round, he isn't anywhere on the train.
The old narrow-gauge Ghan crawls north through the winter desert, Marree to Alice Springs by way of Oodnadatta — a day and a night of saltbush and sidings. Aboard: a retired opal miner with a locked briefcase he won't let out of his sight, a handful of passengers, and a crew who've worked the line for years.
At a quarter past seven the next morning, the conductor knocks with his tea and gets no answer. The door is still bolted from the inside. The window is shuttered and bolted. His wallet, watch and spectacles sit on the shelf; a pencilled note sits on the pillow. The briefcase is gone — and so is Claude Hollister. The train is searched from the engine to the brake van. He is not aboard.
You're handed the complete South Australia Police case file — the reports, the exhibits, the interviews, and the railway's own paperwork: berthing advices, repair books, running journals, waybills. A 1968 mine collapse is in play, and the answer hides in the cross-references. Read it slowly. The desert is a poor place to hide a man. Paper is worse.
It plays fair. Every clue you need is on the page — if you're reading closely enough to catch it.
You don't need anything but the file and an evening.
No app. No subscription. No one to post anything to. Buy it once, and it's yours to print and replay.
Download
Three PDFs land the moment you pay.
Print or read on screen
Whatever suits you — paper for a group, screen for solo.
Work the evidence
Comb the interviews, journals, waybills and railway papers for the slip.
Make your call
Who's responsible — and the door, the remains, the briefcase.
Open the solution
See exactly how close you got, and how it all fits.
Three files. A whole case in your hands.
The dossier
The complete police file: reports, exhibits, six suspect interviews, a 1968 inquest clipping, the crew's statements — and the railway's own paper: berthing advice, repair book, running journal, waybill, even the dining-car menu.
One sealed nudge
A single hint, kept in its own file. It points you back at the right documents without naming anyone. Open it only if the file has you beaten.
The full reveal
Who, how and why — laid out with the evidence trail that proves it, so you can see every clue you spotted and every one you walked past.Don't open this one until you've made your call.
Real pages from the file.
Everyone stayed aboard. Somebody knows where he went.
A retired schoolteacher, a dealer in precious stones, a young drover heading home, a clergyman back from Adelaide, a dining-car steward of twenty years, and the passenger in berth 8. Everyone has something they'd rather you didn't find. A few of the faces you'll sit across from:
Mrs PembertonThe retired schoolteacher
Peter EisenThe gem dealer
"Snow" RadfordThe young drover
Mrs TjamiThe passenger in berth 8
Albert JamisonThe dining-car steward
Hello — I'm Nathan. I publish Morning Post, the daily newsletter you may have read this morning.
This is the third Morning Post Mystery, and it's the hard one. Fair — everything you need is in the file — but the answer hides in the cross-references: a name on a manifest, a line in a repair book, a waybill going the wrong way. It's the one to save for a night you're feeling sharp.
It's set on the old narrow-gauge Ghan in the winter of 1978 — the slow train through the dead heart, when a vanishing between sidings was a matter for typed reports, telegrams and a conductor's running journal. The back third of the file is the railway's own paperwork. Read it slowly: those boring pages are where the case lives. No gore — the weight is in a ten-year-old grief and the long way it travelled.
If you get all five questions on the review form, you've out-read the detectives.
One case. One night train. One impossible vanishing.
On its own, or as part of the set — buy once, print as many copies as your table needs.
Vanishing on the Ghan
An impossible vanishing on the old Ghan, 1978.
- Instant PDF download — case file, clue & solution
- Print at home or play on screen
- 1 to 6 players · 90 minutes to 2½ hours
- A fair-play puzzle — every clue is on the page
- The hardest case in the series so far · 4/5
The First Cases
Every case so far — plus the one you can't buy.
- This case, plus The Vanishing at Blackwattle Station & Storm at Wye Inn
- Curtain at the Theatre Royal — the bundle-only bonus, free with the set
- 12 PDFs · instant download · print & replay
Instant PDF download · Secure Stripe checkout · 14-day refund
Before you take the case.
If yours isn't here, email me — I read every reply.
What exactly is a print-and-play mystery?
It's a whole missing-person case, delivered as a PDF. You read the dossier — police reports, exhibits, suspect interviews and the railway's own papers — work out who's responsible and how it was done, then check a separate solution file to see how you went. There's no app, no subscription, and nothing to wait for in the post. Print it out and spread it across the table, or read the whole thing on screen.
How many people can play?
Anywhere from one to six. Solo, it's a long evening with a pot of tea. With a partner it's a different sort of night in. With friends, a book club, or the family at Christmas, print a few copies and let everyone chase their own theory — then compare notes before you open the solution.
Do I have to print it?
No. It reads perfectly well on a computer, tablet or phone. But it's lovely on paper — many people print the case file, three-hole-punch it into a folder, and pass the exhibits around. For a group, a printed copy each works best.
How hard is it?
Four out of five — the hardest case in the series so far, on purpose. The file plays completely fair, but the answer lives in the cross-references between documents, and the review form asks five questions, not one. A careful reader can absolutely get there. If you're stuck, the clue file is a single sealed nudge — it points you at the right papers without naming anyone.
Is it grim or gory?
No. There's no violence on the page — the weight of the story is in an old grief and the patience of the people carrying it. It's an adult mystery in the tradition of Australian detective fiction, and it's perfectly at home on the dinner table.
Won't I spoil it for myself?
The solution is a separate file for exactly that reason. Read the case, make your call, then open it. The clue file is one page and self-contained, so you can take the nudge without seeing the answer.
Do I need to have played the earlier cases?
Not at all. Every Morning Post Mystery is a complete, standalone case — different setting, different decade, different kind of puzzle. You can start anywhere. (If you'd rather not start with the hard one, Blackwattle Station and Wye Inn are gentler ways in.)
Is it Australian?
Through and through. It's set aboard the old narrow-gauge Ghan in June 1978 — Marree, Oodnadatta, the winter desert, the dining car, the two-up game in the guard's van. Written in Australian English, with the texture of the place and the period. The characters and events are invented.
What if I'm not happy?
14-day no-questions-asked refund. Reply to your Stripe receipt and we'll sort it within 48 hours.
Who's behind this?
Morning Post — Australia's daily newsletter for grown-ups, read every morning across six capital cities. Published by Just Media Network Pty Ltd (ABN 62 638 812 236).
The door was bolted. The desert was empty. The paper knows.
One police file. Six suspects. Five questions to answer.
Vanishing on the Ghan
An impossible vanishing on the old Ghan, 1978.
Instant PDF download · Secure Stripe checkout · 14-day refund
Or take the set: all four cases for $49.
Vanishing on the Ghan is a work of fiction. All characters, names, businesses and events are invented; any resemblance to real people or actual events is coincidental. The old Ghan, the Central Australia Railway and the towns along the line are real and much missed; their use here is atmospheric only. It is a game for entertainment.
Published by Just Media Network Pty Ltd (ABN 62 638 812 236), trading as Morning Post. © 2026.