 The railway realignment consequent to gauge change in 1956 and road movement in 1983 completed the reversal of the town's fortune.The town was, for some time, the starting point of many central Australian expeditions and explorations including those by Ernest Giles in 1872, Peter Warburton in 1873, Ross in 1874, Lewis in 1874-75, and Lawrence Wells in 1883.With the loss of the railway, main road, mining, telegraph and the collapse of the nearby Leigh Creek coal mine, all of the original reasons for the town to exist have vanished.