Tea and Sugar Christmas

Cover for children's book 'Tea and Sugar Chrismas' featuring an illustration of a young child holding a wrapped christmas present standing and smiling in front of a train

For 81 years, from 1915 to 1996, the Tea and Sugar Train travelled from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie once a week. It serviced the settlements along the Nullarbor Plain, a 1050-long rail link. It was a lifeline.

The biggest excitement for the children was the first Thursday of December every year, when Father Christmas travelled the line. He distributed gifts to all the children on the way, including those of railway workers, those in isolated communities, and station kids.

Brilliantly written and wonderfully illustrated, Kathleen’s story is heart-warming and delightful. Travel back in time to await the Christmas Train's arrival.

In the collection

Three men and a woman holding a child at the provision store on the Tea and Sugar train on the Trans Australia Railway

Keith Fellowes & Australian News and Information Bureau, Interior of the provision store on the Tea and Sugar train on the Trans Australia Railway, May 1968, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-137676609

Black and white photo of a woman leaning on the window to the butcher on the Tea and Sugar train on the Trans Australia Railway

Keith Fellowes & Australian News and Information Bureau, A resident of Karonie buys meat in the butcher's car of the Tea and Sugar train on the Trans Australia Railway, c. 1960, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-137678078

Man in a Santa suit carrying a large sack over his shoulder walking along a train track with 5 children

David Dare Parker, Alf Harris the Tea and Sugar Santa and local children walking along the railway tracks, Forrest, Western Australia, 1989, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-137068251

Awards

Winner: Australian Book Industry Awards, Small Publisher's Children's Book of the Year 2015
Winner: Museums Australasia Multimedia and Publication Design Awards, Children's Book Design 2015
Shortlisted: NSW Premiers Literary Awards, Children's Book 2016
Honoured: Children's Book Council of Australia, Eve Pownall Award for Information Books 2015

About the author

Jane Jolly is a primary school teacher in Adelaide.

She has written many award-winning picture books, including Tea and Sugar Christmas and Radio Rescue for NLA Publishing.

Her books have been previous winners of the ABIA Small Publisher Children’s Book of the Year award, shortlisted for the CBCA Eve Pownall Award for Information Books and Notables in the CBCA Picture Book and Younger Readers categories.

Also by the author

Captain Thunderbolt’s Recital

Jane Jolly, illustrated by Liz Duthie

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Star of Anise

Jane Jolly & Di Wu

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About the illustrator

Robert Ingpen AM, FRSA is an Australian graphic designer, illustrator, and writer. For his "lasting contribution" as a children's illustrator he received the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1986.

He has illustrated numerous children’s classics, including Storm Boy by Colin Thiele, and the centenary editions of J M Barrie’s Peter Pan and Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows. His work in children’s books attracts attention to this day.