Kangaroo Valley

History

The first inhabitants of Kangaroo Valley were the Australian Aboriginal Wodi-Wodi people, who had reportedly occupied the land for around 20,000 years before the European settlement of Australia in 1788. An 1826 census indicated 79 Aborigines lived in the valley in five separate encampments. The first recorded European sighting of the valley was in April 1812, when surveyor-explorer George Evans passed through the area as he travelled north from his exploration of Jervis Bay. Evans reportedly claimed that the valley offered a view that "no painter could beautify." The area was first settled in 1817 when Charles Throsby, an explorer and Captain Richard Brooks, a cattleman, opened the area for colonial settlement. The felling and exporting of Australian red cedar (Toona ciliata) trees quickly became the main industry in Kangaroo Valley. By the mid-1840s, a number of dairy farmers made the region their home, specialising in the production of butter as other dairy products such as milk could not be exported as they would often curdle long before they had completed the journey out of Kangaroo Valley to neighbouring settlements. By the 1870s, activity had begun to concentrate in the area that is now the village, as other centres in Kangaroo Valley, such as Trendally, died with the dairy industry in the region. Both the Church of the Good Shepherd (built in 1870–72) and rectory (built in 1879 by John Tanner) were designed by John Horbury Hunt, and are listed on the (now defunct) Register of the National Estate. The local public school was built in 1884 of local sandstone. Further additions constructed of weatherboard and brick were made later. The local courthouse was built c.1910, also of local sandstone. The design is asymmetrical and features a sloping buttress and…

Geography

Kangaroo Valley is a gently sloping wide valley surrounded on its sides by high mountains of the NSW Southern Highlands, approximately two hours' drive south-west of Sydney and about two hours north of Canberra. Flying Fox Pass looks over the valley. A few kilometres further north is the Fitzroy Falls.

Most-observed species

• Australian Magpie

  Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  5,643
• Australian Raven

  Corvus coronoides Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 · Aves
  5,303
• Superb Fairywren

  Malurus cyaneus (Ellis, 1782) · Aves
  4,915
• Gray Fantail

  Rhipidura albiscapa Gould, 1840 · Aves
  4,819
• long-nosed potoroo

  Potorous tridactylus (Kerr, 1792) · Mammalia
  4,637
• Crimson Rosella

  Platycercus elegans (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  4,479
• Eastern Spinebill

  Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris (Latham, 1801) · Aves
  4,295
• Magpie-lark

  Grallina cyanoleuca (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  4,091

Most recent

• M 3.6 — 2025-05-28
  3 km WNW of Cobbitty, Australia
• M 3.5 — 2024-03-08
  14 km SSW of Woodford, Australia
• M 3 — 2007-08-22
  24 km W of Oakdale, Australia
• M 3.2 — 2007-08-18
  10 km NW of Mittagong, Australia
• M 2.6 — 2007-08-18
  11 km NW of Mittagong, Australia
• M 3.1 — 2007-04-11
  3 km SE of Stanwell Park, Australia