The electrified South Coast railway line passes through, but the station at Clifton was closed in 1915.

The Sea Cliff Bridge, opened in 2005, restored the connection between Clifton and Coalcliff, broken by frequent rock falls onto this section of the Lawrence Hargrave Drive.

It was situated on the southern end of the Stanwell Park Estate owned by surveyor Sir Thomas Mitchell.

Thomas Hale, the first mine manager, constructed a 500-foot (150 m) jetty out to sea and a slide down the 120-foot (37 m) cliff.

There was a post/telegraph office, school, (opened 1879), and James Farraher's Clifton Inn and in 1884 the press reported near 1000 residents, a large proportion of which worked at the mines.

The mine closed after storms destroyed the jetty and job losses crippled the village.

[5] It closed in November 2002 after the collapse of Lawrence Hargrave Drive (now replaced by the Sea Cliff Bridge).