The crossing is 290 metres (950 ft) in length and takes approximately 3 minutes.

[2][3][4] The Sackville Ferry is the farthest upstream of four vehicular cable ferry crossings of the Hawkesbury River proper - between Windsor Bridge and Brooklyn.

[3][5] A ferry service is known to have operated across the river at Sackville since at least 1883, and possibly the 1870s.

Initially privately owned, by c1908 the operation of the ferry was sub-contracted by Baulkham Hills Shire Council to a local resident.

It was taken over by the New South Wales Department of Main Roads, a predecessor of Transport for NSW, shortly after that body's inception in 1932.