There is an Australia-wide forum,
Railpage Australia.
For some reason, Railpage forum activity has slowed down considerably over the past year or two. I'm not sure why this has happened, and a bit surprising since like the rest of Australia, it's quite demarcated on a state-by-state basis.
But I think there will still be enough active & knowledgeable members that if you sign up and post some specific questions on Railpage, you will get answers & useful info.
I'm not aware of any websites equivalent to Realtime Trains, but there are the following sources (admittedly none of these will be helpful for railtour or heritage operations):-
- Several apps, like TransitTimes+ give good coverage of the suburban train (and tram & bus) timetables and real-time running in the major Australian cities.
- The main interstate rail operator ARTC (a kind-of Network Rail-type organisation, but not quite the same) publishes working timetables for long-haul freight, including the very few long-distance passenger trains here. You might need a crash course in Australian railway geography to understand how the network is broken up for timetabling purposes.
