Oak Flats railway station is a single-platform

intercity train Inter-city rail services are express passenger train services that run services that connect cities over longer distances than commuter or regional trains. There is no precise definition of inter-city rail; its meaning may vary from country ...

station located in

Oak Flats, New South Wales Oak Flats is a suburb of Shellharbour, New South Wales, Australia situated on the south western shores of Lake Illawarra and within the Illawarra region of New South Wales. It is a residential area, which had a population of 6,415 at the . Oak F ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, on the South Coast railway line. The station serves

NSW TrainLink NSW TrainLink is a train and coach operator in Australia, providing services throughout New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, along with limited interstate services into Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. Its primary interc ...

trains travelling south to

Kiama Kiama () is a coastal town 120 kilometres south of Sydney in the Illawarra. One of the main tourist attractions is the Kiama Blowhole. Kiama features several popular surfing beaches and caravan parks, and numerous alfresco cafes and restaurants ...

and north to

Wollongong Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wate ...

and

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. Together with the Dunmore and later Shellharbour Junction stations, Oak Flats has long served as the rail connection for the coastal suburbs of the

City of Shellharbour The City of Shellharbour is a local government area in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The city is located about south of Sydney and covers the southern suburbs of the Wollongong urban area centred on Shellharbour and it had ...

History

The railway reached the area in 1887, when the South Coast Line was extended from Wollongong to North Kiama. Initially stations were only provided at

Dunmore Dunmore from the ga, Dún Mór, link=no or gd, Dùn Mòr, link=no, meaning "great fort", may refer to: People * Dunmore (surname) * Earl of Dunmore, a title in the Peerage of Scotland, includes a list of earls * Countess of Dunmore (disambiguat ...

and

Albion Park Albion Park is a suburb situated in the Macquarie Valley in the City of Shellharbour, which is in turn one of the three local government areas that comprise the Wollongong Metropolitan Area, New South Wales, Australia. Although it is surround ...

– although Albion Park Station was known as Oak Flats until the following year. Local politician and sometime

Premier of New South Wales The premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales acting as the legislature. ...

George Fuller was a prominent landholder in the district – his father had named Dunmore – and in 1921 he subdivided some of his land at Oak Flats, on the southern shore of

Lake Illawarra Lake Illawarra ( Aboriginal Tharawal language: various adaptions of ''Elouera'', ''Eloura'', or ''Allowrie''; ''Illa'', ''Wurra'', or ''Warra'' meaning pleasant place near the sea, or, high place near the sea, or, white clay mountain), is an ope ...

. The development of a residential area over the next few years spurred the NSW Government Railways to build a station for the new subdivision; this opened in 1925. The original station featured a single wooden platform and small, skillion-roofed

weatherboard Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...

waiting shed. Concerns over accessibility and a constrained site led the

State Rail Authority The State Rail Authority, a former statutory authority of the Government of New South Wales, operated and maintained railways in the Australian state of New South Wales from July 1980 until December 2003. History The ''Transport Authorities Ac ...

to relocate the station in 2003. The $6 million interchange, built by Bovis Lend Lease on a new site 400 metres east of the original, opened on 21 February. The building features a double pitched roof, a band of tangerine-coloured glazed bricks, recycled timber beams and distinctive Y-shaped steel columns. Opening the new facility, then Transport Minister

Carl Scully Patrick Carl Scully (born 4 April 1957), is a former Australian politician and minister in the New South Wales Government before his forced resignation on 25 October 2006 for deceit from misleading parliament. Background and early career Scully ...

described it as "one of the best railway stations in the state." A plan to name the new station "Shellharbour City (Oak Flats)" was abandoned following community opposition. The earlier station was subsequently demolished. Electronic ticketing, in the form of the Opal smart card, has been available at Oak Flats since 2014.

Croom Tunnel

Immediately to the east of Oak Flats Station is the 40-metre-long Croom Tunnel, said to be the shortest railway tunnel in NSW.

Platforms and services

Oak Flats has one side platform. It is serviced by

South Coast line The South Coast Line is an intercity rail service operated by NSW TrainLink that services the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The service runs from , and runs the entire length of the eponymous South Coast railway line to . Th ...

services travelling between Sydney Central,

Bondi Junction Bondi Junction is an eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 6 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of Waverley. Bondi Junction is a largely comme ...

and

Transport links

Premier Illawarra operates six routes via Oak Flats station: *37:

Beach to Wollongong station via

Oak Flats Oak Flats is a suburb of Shellharbour, New South Wales, Australia situated on the south western shores of Lake Illawarra and within the Illawarra region of New South Wales. It is a residential area, which had a population of 6,415 at the . Oak F ...

Shellharbour Shellharbour (also known as Shellharbour Village) is a suburb located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. It also gives its name to the local government area, City of Shellharbour, and its central business district, Shellhar ...

anti-clockwise loop *51: to

University of Wollongong The University of Wollongong (abbreviated as UOW) is an Australian public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney. As of 2017, the university had an enrolment of ...

*53: to University of Wollongong *57: to Wollongong station to Wollongong Beach via Shellharbour & Oak Flats clockwise loop *76:

to Stockland Shellharbour *77: Albion Park to Stockland Shellharbour

References

External links

*
Oak Flats station details
Transport for New South Wales {{Transport for New South Wales railway stations, South Coast=y, state=collapsed Easy Access railway stations in New South Wales Railway stations in Australia opened in 1925 Regional railway stations in New South Wales