Aussie TV soap staple Home and Away aired its end-of-year finale this week, which saw a dramatic train crash threaten the lives of multiple characters. (Gotta have that cliffhanger!)
The three-part-broadcast was a ratings success, drawing 801,000 viewers to be the top-rated non-news show of the night in Australia. But predictably, the heavily-promoted storyline also led to a lot of “since when has Summer Bay had a train station?” commentary online. Let’s look into that.
In the storyline, a bunch of characters are heading to a three-day music festival in Broken Hill on a special “party train”. This has obvious parallels with the real-world Elvis Express train service which runs to Parkes for the annual Elvis festival (and which occasionally stops at the infamous Orange East Fork station). The Parkes line does really run to Broken Hill too, though there’s only a weekly regular service (plus the Indian Pacific).
Summer Bay (a fictional town) not having a regular train service makes sense – very few coastal locations outside Australian capital city networks do. In NSW, where Home and Away is set, Coffs Harbour is the major obvious example. Nearby Urunga, Sawtell and Urunga and Nambucca Heads are also on the list. (Pedant note: It’s still a solid walk from the station to the beach at the last two.)
In the (loose) continuity of Home and Away, there is an occasionally-mentioned railway station. It’s not in Summer Bay itself, but in the nearby larger township of Yabbie Creek – and this is where the “party train” departs from.
Thanks to the comprehensive fan site Back To The Bay, we know that Yabbie Creek station first appeared on screen way back in 1991. Scenes for that were shot at Hawkesbury River station on the Central Coast line. That’s relatively close to the Palm Beach location where Home and Away films many of its exterior scenes, so it’s a logical choice.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
However, the 2025 railway footage for the show was shot a lot further away, in the western NSW town of Cowra. Cowra no longer gets regular passenger rail services, but the station is used by the Lachlan Valley Railway heritage line. Local paper the Cowra Guardian reported on the filming back in August, which shows how far in advance the series films. The remote location was presumably worth it to have access to a station where you’d never have to worry about regular passing trains or passengers.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
For completists, there has been another railway-related moment on Home and Away, per the Back To The Bay experts. Back in 1995, character Laura Bonetti was run over while crossing a train line, in scenes filmed at Thirlmere in Sydney’s south.
An obvious note: soaps really don’t give a damn about continuity. When you’re willing to have characters come back from the dead or be recast multiple times with actors who don’t resemble each other, a Schrodinger’s railway line that pops up once every 30 years is the least of your concerns.
And yep, that image of the derailed train does not look particularly credible.
For more deep dives on Australian TV history, check out when Sesame Street and the Star Wars Holiday Special first aired in Australia and the murky history of Kwicky Koala. For more railway nerdery, see the list of Sydney’s busiest stations and what will happen to Walllerawang station.
Leave a Reply