THE Opal card has made it there even if roads have not.

Welcome to Wondabyne — the only train station in Australia inaccessible by road.

On the shores of Mullet Creek between Woy Woy station to the north and Hawkesbury River in the south, the station has no ticket machine, no guard and platforms so short passengers must alight from the rear carriage.

media_camera Wondabyne station, on the main northern line, is the only railway station in Australia that does not have road access / Picture: Peter Clark

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To catch a train, they have to wave madly at an approaching train to flag it down.

Only 40 minutes from Sydney the station feels a world away, save for the regular Sydney Trains announcements.

media_camera A train passenger arrives by boat, at Wondabyne station wharf, the only railway station in Australia that does not have road access. Picture:Peter Clark

media_camera Carolyn MacPherson her son Glenn are regular users of Australia’s only train station without road access. Pic: Peter Clark

The station was built to coincide with the opening in May 1889 of the first Hawkesbury River Bridge, which completed the rail link between Brisbane and Adelaide.

Prior to that, passengers had to alight at the now defunct River Wharf train station and catch the paddle steamer “General Gordon’’ across the Hawkesbury and on to Gosford.

Hundreds of men or “navvies’’ worked on the bridge, railway and Woy Woy Tunnel, which opened in August 1887.

media_camera Alan and Carolyn MacPherson with their son Glenn / Picture: Peter Clark

Some workers stayed and a once thriving township of riverfront cottages sprang up around the station, serviced by a pub and, according to local folklore, even a brothel owned by the infamous Tilly Devine.

The pub is long gone and many of the houses knocked down and the land absorbed into Brisbane Water National Park.

media_camera A train guard checks the platform at Wondabyne station / Picture: Peter Clark

These days the station is used by a handful of commuters and holiday homeowners, such as the MacPhersons, who moor their dinghy at the small public wharf before catching the train.

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Alan MacPherson, 71, of Blaxland, has been coming to his family’s river-only access cottage at Wondabyne since he was a small child.

media_camera Contractors wait for the next train at Wondabyne / Picture: Peter Clark

media_camera A train approaches Wondabyne’s tiny platform. Picture:Peter Clark

“Every time a steam train came through you would have to get off the platform otherwise you would get blown away and end up in the drink,’’ he said.

A rail worker who stopped to check signals down the line said locals liked to keep Wondabyne a secret. “People who live out here, live out here because they’re off the grid,’’ he said.

Wondabyne is also the launch point for half a dozen popular walking tracks to Woy Woy, Patonga, Sydney Cove some 90km away and a section of the Great North Walk.

WONDABYNE