On the shores of Mullet Creek on the Hawkesbury River in south Australia, there’s a train station with no ticket machine, no guard, and platforms so short that passengers must board from the rear carriage. Welcome to Wondabyne — the only train station in Australia inaccessible by road. To catch the train, passengers have to wave madly as it approaches in order to flag it down. Only 40 minutes from Sydney, the station feels a world away, except for the regular Sydney Trains announcements. The station was built in 1889, which completed the rail link between Brisbane and Adelaide. Hundreds of men worked on the bridge, railway and tunnel. When the project was complete, some of the workers stayed and a once-thriving township of riverfront cottages sprang up around the station. There was even a pub in the tiny town. The pub is long gone now and many of the houses were knocked down. These days the station is used by a handful of commuters and vacation homeowners, who moor their dinghies at the small public wharf before catching the train.
