[6] South Yarra station was opened by the Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company as Gardiners Creek Road.

However, a high embankment obscured the vision of train drivers approaching South Yarra on both lines.

To solve that problem, it was decided that the Oakleigh line should have its own tracks into Melbourne, and the Cremorne Railway Bridge, spanning the Yarra River, was duplicated to allow that.

The works included the quadruplication of the line, and the reconstruction of the stations at Hawksburn, Toorak, Armadale and Malvern.

[6] Even after the laying of six tracks from Richmond to South Yarra, and the abolition of the signal box, the station retained three emergency crossovers at the up end of Platforms 1 and 2, 3 and 4 and 5 and 6.

[14][15] Services on the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines will no longer stop at South Yarra when the Metro Tunnel opens, which is scheduled to take place in 2025.