Who wasn't struck by the sheer number of jarring online videos that emerged from Unanderra last week, not to mention the rawness of the messages they carried?

One clip showed a young female stroke victim struggling to negotiate the huge flight of concrete stairs that - believe it or not, in the 21st century - represents the only access to Unanderra train station's platform.

In the same clip, we witness a man in a wheelchair somehow reverse down the same set of 40-odd stairs, nearly losing control in the process.

Another vid shows a double-leg amputee literally clawing his way up from the platform.

What is this, Cityrail? Some sick version of Survivor Wollongong?

Why are disabled and infirm commuters battling at a train station in 2015?

The short answer? Because there are no lifts at Unanderra train station.

If you're in a wheelchair, if you are old, on crutches, have had a stroke, have kids in prams or are generally in the disabled category, then Unanderra station is not for you.

Your options are:

* Get a taxi

* Hire a limo

* Use your jet-pack

* Take the company helicopter

* Have Mike Baird or Gladys Berejiklian's driver come and get you

I was staggered to learn that Unanderra residents have been campaigning for lifts at their station for more than 20 years. Kurt Cobain has been dead longer than that! John Fahey was the premier when all this started! Sydney hadn't even won the right to host the Olympics and yet we managed to build all that associated crap by 1999.

No such investment down Unanderra way, though.

They've had two decades worth of taking on the stairs in wheelchairs; of old ladies barely having the oxygen to summit the Everest of concrete with their weekly shopping; of mums pulling babies in prams up from the platform one step at a time in a potential prolapse-a-thon.

Why is it so? Who is to blame? Well, everybody is! State government after state government has more or less told the good people of Unanderra - and many more besides - to go and get a black dog up 'em.

Meanwhile, on higher ground in Macquarie Street, state MPs have chauffeur-driven cars and underground parking! Hooray!

Wouldn't you know it, though - there's an election in the offing and that means a big money tree has suddenly sprouted and it might rain down leaves of cash on Unanderra train station. Miraculously, all three candidates at the upcoming NSW general election have promised to finally address the problem of poor amputees getting gravel in their arses and chewy stuck on their hands just so they can catch a train. It's estimated $25 million should get Undanderrans a decent set of lifts.

We'll keep an eye on how that pans out; politicians have promised a lot lately.

The other online clip I watched this week was almost too much to bear. Heartbreaking in its poignancy, it showed what a lack of investment can do to some people. Yet, despite the hardships they endure, common folk can still revel in the beauty of a sunny Sunday morning.

The video - shot at nearby Unanderra Skate Park - captures two of the suburb's most famous gents verbally dissecting the frailty of the human condition.

If you haven't heard of Damo and Darren (the brain children of Unanderra-raised filmmaker Michael Cusack) then you must Google them immediately. The world first encountered Damo and Darren last year at Dapto train station as they weighed up the pros and cons of Damo loaning his cigarette lighter to Darren. Anyway ...

Back to Unanderra. This week's clip finds Damo and Darren ebullient at the local skate park, getting their drink on after having a few billies for breakfast. Darren gets all philosophical.

"That's what I always say though," he says, gesturing towards Damo with a long-neck wrapped in a brown paper bag. "To not take life for granted 'cos you never know, eh? One day you could be there and the next day ..."

"Yer gawwwn!" chimes Damo, showing a deep understanding of his mate's point.

Darren: "Yer f--ken gawwwn mate! Yer gawwwn!"

It spoke to me of first-termism. Governments are starting to understand this concept. And it scares them witless. As Darren might say to the people tasked with providing infrastructure (apologies to Michael Cusack): "Yous've got all that money from taxin' everyone n'that but yer spendin' it on yer nice office and yer flash car for yerselves."

Damo: "Mike Baird's got a bullshit sick Commodore and I seen that fuggen Abbott in a BMW. He's got heaps of 'em!"

Darren: "So whoever's the premier or the president or whatever, just sell some of yer BMWs and put in a lift at the train station at the 'Derra so people won't have to wheelchair up the steps, will ya?"

Damo and Darren vote and if their voices aren't heard, you, your seat and your government could be gawwwn mate.