Waterfall

Waterfall is a small suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia.

Waterfall is a small suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 40 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district in the Sutherland Shire. It is the southernmost suburb of Sydney in the eastern corridor, bordering the Illawarra region.

Waterfall was a town created by rail workers, who built the line from Sydney to Wollongong in the late 19th century.It is the highest point on the line, with a steep rising gradient at one end, and a falling gradient at the other end, and sidings were provided in both directions to allow freight wagons to be stowed and shunted. Waterfall derived its name from the waterfalls close to the railway station. McKell Avenue, the southern border of the Royal National Park, was originally called Waterfall Road.The Waterfall State Sanatorium was established in 1909 for the treatment of tuberculosis patients. In 1973 Australia's first Community Advanced Driver Training Centre was opened in Waterfall but closed a few years later.The Waterfall train collision on 20 December 1994 involved two S-set electric trains which collided in the early hours of the morning during a shunting procedure at Waterfall station in the south of Sydney. Both trains were empty of passengers. Carriages jack-knifed in spectacular fashion onto the platform, causing demolition of a concrete ramp and part of the station canopy.

The Waterfall train disaster on 31 January 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.