Holt built Sutherland House on the foreshore of Gwawley Bay in 1818, on the eastern side of Sylvania.

After World War II there was a large population increase and the area was suburbanised from the 1950s, with many of the guest houses being replaced by high rise flats.

[3] The Sutherland-Cronulla line was constructed from 1936 and completed in 1939, under the NSW premiership of the conservative Sir Bertram Stevens.

In 1936 the NSW Parliament authorised expenditure of A£300,000 to construct the Sutherland to Cronulla railway line, with the men employed to receive award wages "in pursuance of the Cabinet's policy of replacing unemployment relief works by works that will provide a better return for the expenditure of public money, and at the same time create improved conditions of employment.

"[4] A federal loan for "state works" including "speeding up of the construction of the Sutherland-Cronulla line" was granted to the NSW government in November 1938.

[6][7] As part of the Cronulla line, five suburban railway stations with Inter-war Functionalist style platform buildings were constructed from Kirrawee to Woolooware (Kirrawee since demolished), and Sutherland Railway Station rebuilt with a pair of Inter-war Functionalist style platform buildings.

Moveable items include the railway clock to platform; two plaques; and timber roll-over indicator boards.

There is a low brick retaining wall along the Cronulla street side of the platform, above which modern powder coated aluminium fencing has been installed.

[3] This is a freestanding brick entry building/ticket booth with curved corners, a low soldier course in contrasting brickwork, and steel framed windows with 2 horizontal glazing bars.

[3] This is an asymmetrically proportioned brick building, a dramatic and imposing composition of Inter-war Functionalist style design with great visual impact to both the Cronulla Street (east) and platform (west) elevations.

The building has 8 stepped bays with shallow pitched gabled roofs hidden behind parapets, curved corners, two soldier courses in contrasting brickwork, curved awnings to both the street and platform elevations of the building, and a flat roofed clock tower facing Cronulla Street.

The main platform building entrance area is particularly well defined by two sweeping curved walls of bull nosed bricks forming a covered passageway.

[3] The building has original steel framed awning windows placed in groups of three vertically and flywire fanlights.

The Countrylink Travel Centre located to the north of the entry area on the street (east) elevation has modern aluminium framed glazed doors.

[3] The interior of the building comprises a complex arrangement of discrete spaces that are defined by the curving walls of each bay, resulting in asymmetrical and unusually proportioned rooms.

Although some fit out has been removed, the bulk of interior joinery, doors and window frames have been retained along with the original signalling/track switching gear, which is still in everyday use.

Cronulla Railway Station is of high technical significance for its ability to demonstrate design and construction techniques of the mid-20th century.

[3] Cronulla railway station was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 having satisfied the following criteria.

[3] The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales.

[3] The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales.

[3] The place possesses uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales.

[3] This Wikipedia article contains material from Cronulla Railway Station group, entry number 01123 in the New South Wales State Heritage Register published by the State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) 2018 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 2 June 2018.