Gadigal Station makes the world’s most beautiful list

The prestigious global design awards commended the station’s innovative architecture, sustainable design and seamless functionality, describing it as the “epitome of absolute modernity’”. 

More than just a transport hub, Gadigal was recognised as a future-facing urban precinct, integrating fast and reliable metro services from platforms 25 metres below ground with commercial and residential spaces that rise above it. 

The station’s name, which honours the Gadigal People, the Traditional Custodians of the land around Sydney’s CBD, also received special mention.  

Public art was another standout feature, with Callum Morton’s The Underneath - a bold tiled installation located at both station entrances – acknowledged for its creative impact. Comprising 10,000 brightly coloured porcelain enamel tiles, the work forms two 13-metre-high murals that depict stylised train tunnels with a playful Looney Tunes feel, referencing Sydney’s early rail infrastructure. 

Welcoming around 15,700 passengers each day, Gadigal Station is one of six new metro stations and platforms at Central and Sydenham to have opened below Sydney’s CBD in August 2024. 

From Gadigal, passengers can enjoy fast metro rides to Chatswood in 13 minutes, Sydenham in 9 minutes and out to Castle Hill in 37 minutes.  

Gadigal Station highlights:  

• 1,700 sandstone wall panels line the escalator shafts, sourced from a quarry on the NSW Central Coast.
• 11,000 custom aluminium tube panels enhance acoustics and give platforms a sleek, futuristic finish.
• Modern platform seating, including 18 benches and 200 metres of Australian spotted gum leaning rails.
• Six monumental columns at the Park Street entrance, each 25 metres tall and weighing 168 tonnes. Together, the columns weigh more than a kilotonne.
• Full accessibility, including platform screen door to keep passengers safely separated from the rail corridor.
• Two 29-storey towers built in conjunction with the station: Parkline Place, a glass-fronted commercial office building above Park Street and Sydney’s first build-to-rent residential tower with 234 apartments above Bathurst Street.    

Gadigal Station is now in contention for one of three 2025 World Titles – Prix Versailles, Interior or Exterior – to be announced at the World Ceremony on 4 December 2025. 

The Prix Versailles World’s Most Beautiful Stations List 2025: 

• Gadigal Station (Sydney, Australia)
• Mons Station (Mons, Belgium)
• Baiyun Station (Guangzhou, China)
• Saint-Denis – Pleyel Station (Saint-Denis, France)
• Villejuif – Gustave Roussy Station (Villejuif, France)
• Qasr Al Hokm Station (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)
• KAFD Station (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)