Heritage listing Hawkesbury Railway Station has State significance. The station group has an outstanding degree of aesthetic significance. It has a particularly picturesque setting on the edge of the Hawkesbury, with views over the water to the east and west and to Long Island to the north. The station affords a view of the land bridge between Brooklyn and Long Island and the portals of the current and former Long Island tunnels, providing a rare opportunity to easily view some of the technical achievements of the Short North line construction. Its waterside setting is unusual and as such it is one of the most picturesque station settings in NSW. Hawkesbury River Station has historical associations with the construction of the Short North line in the late 1880s and the Hawkesbury River Bridge in 1889, which was a major event and a significant engineering achievement in the history of NSW railways. The station facilitated the development of Brooklyn as a settlement for workers constructing the line and the station forms part of an extensive railway landscape of outstanding significance clustered around the Hawkesbury River, which includes the Long Island tunnels and maintenance depot, the current and former Hawkesbury River railway bridges and worker accommodation in Brooklyn township. The platform building, island platform and footbridge are representative of structures built at Sydney railway stations between 1892 and 1929 and especially the period between 1909 and 1917. The station building is a good representative example of its type due to its high degree of intactness and integrity. Hawkesbury River railway station was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the course, or pattern, of cultural or natural history in New South Wales. The Hawkesbury River Railway Station was the terminus for the first section of the Short North from Strathfield for two years until the first Hawkesbury River bridge was completed in 1889. As such it has historic associations with the rail linkage of Sydney and Newcastle, which was a major event in the history of NSW railways. It forms part of a significant railway landscape including the Long Island Maintenance Depot, land bridge and tunnels, the current and former Hawkesbury River Rail bridges and railway worker accommodation in Brooklyn township. The station facilitated the development of Brooklyn as a settlement for workers constructing the line.