Steam engines and the Suez shortcut in the late 19th and early 20th centuries reduced the journey to about 40 days. In the 1950s, the last liners were able to do so in about 25 days. In the following years, air transportation would assert its dominance, and liner services were removed.

Historically, the journey from London to Sydney by sail was an arduous multi-month voyage. In the late 1700s, the First Fleet took approximately 252 days (over 8 months) to arrive. By the mid-19th century, the advent of "Clipper ships"—designed specifically for speed—drastically reduced this time. The famous Cutty Sark could make the trip in roughly 70 to 80 days by following the "Great Circle" route and utilizing the powerful winds of the Roaring Forties. Today, while most travel is done by air in under 24 hours, a modern sailing yacht or commercial cargo vessel would still take between 35 and 50 days depending on the route (Suez Canal vs. Cape of Good Hope) and weather conditions. The vast reduction from 8 months to roughly 2 months marked one of the most significant shifts in global connectivity in human history, eventually paved over by the age of steam and, later, the jet engine, which made the "Kangaroo Route" a matter of hours rather than weeks.