Loftus is 29 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire.

The Sydney Tramway Museum at Loftus (a non-profit community organisation run entirely by volunteers) was created in 1950, in a large tram yard shed beside the rail tracks that ran across the Princes Highway into the Royal National Park.

During the latter years of World War II this had been an army camp site, with the national park used as a training ground.

[1] Loftus is a residential suburb with a bushland atmosphere, adjacent to the Royal National Park that flanks Sydney's south-eastern boundary.

Loftus is also home to the Sydney Tramway Museum (also known as the South Pacific Electric Railway), which operates the Royal National Park branch line that was constructed in 1886 and closed to suburban trains in June 1991.