Waterfall, New South Wales

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Waterfall is a small suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 38km south of the Sydney central business district in the Sutherland Shire.

Waterfall is bodered to the north by the suburb of Heathcote followed by Engadine, further north. It is bounded by The Royal National Park to the east, and Heathcote National Park to the west. Helensburgh is the next town, travelling south. Waterfall marks the southern border of the Sutherland Shire.

Waterfall has only six streets. Its local school has only two rooms which have kindergarten to 2nd class in one room, and 3rd class to 6th class in another.

[edit] Transport

Waterfall is the last suburb heading south on the Princes Highway before it leads into the Southern Freeway (also known as the F6 freeway) to the city of Wollongong.

Waterfall railway station is the terminus for the CityRail suburban Illawarra line. However some trains do terminate one stop further on at Helensburgh. Waterfall is also a stop on the south coast railway. Platform 1 to Sydney terminal, platform 2 to Port Kembla, Dapto, Kiama.

[edit] History

Waterfall was a town created by railworkers that built the line from Sydney to Wollongong in the late 1800s. Waterfall is the highest point on the line, with steep rising gradients in both directions, and sidings were provided in both directions to allow freight wagons to be stowed and shunted.

The Waterfall State Sanitorium was established in 1909 for the treatment of tuberculosis patients.

The Waterfall train disaster on January 31, 2003, involved an interurban train service operated by unit G7 which crashed just past Waterfall. The cause of G7's crash was determined to be the "heart attack" of the driver and a failure of the safety equipment and the guard to stop the train.

Suburbs and localities within the Sutherland Shire | Southern Sydney | Sydney