their remaining family groups clustered along the Illawarra/Shoalhaven coast, in places such as the (former) government reserves at Coomaditchee, Roseby Park and Wreck Bay. Regardless of the physical exorcising of the Aboriginal people from the land, the rich Aboriginal landscape of this valley remains captured in the numerous traditional campsites marked by stone artefact scatters along the "Parronrah" and axe grinding grooves at Barrengarry; and also in the special places such as rock art sites in the sandstone overhangs along the "Noggarah" that feed into the main river, accompanied by the sharing of stories and song lines describing the important connections people have to country, and most importantly in the continuing culture of the Aboriginal people of the region today. European settlement of the valley began in the late 1810s, with Richard Brooks sending cattle into the valley from the already settled districts of Berrima and Sutton Forest in 1817 and then taking up a grant in the valley in 1820. Others moved into the valley from Sutton Forest to occupy land around Brogers Creek. Cedar- getting also commenced in the first half of this century, with Kangaroo Valley known for its red cedar. Kangaroo Valley was surveyed by Hoddle in 1831. Several areas were selected for cattle stations in the 1830s, but the 1841 census showed only seven men inhabiting the valley. Charles Throsby had passed through Kangaroo Valley in 1818 in search of a route from the coast to the settled districts along the Great South Road (Hume Highway). Throsby's route may have laid the line for the Cambewarra Road. The Cambewarra Road remained an important connection between the more closely settled districts to the north-west, with road access to Parramatta and Sydney, and the south coast. With access from Sydney to Wollongong still difficult into the early twentieth century, travelling to the south coast via the Cambewarra Road, remained a popular way (and still is today) to reach the south coast. Henry Osborne, an Irish settler was a prominent landholder in the valley as well at other locations across the state and in 1837 held over 4000 acres. Charles McCaffrey, one of a group of settlers from Fermanagh, Ireland, brought dairy farming into the Kiama-Shoalhaven region, settling at Barrengarry in 1846. He soon began a dairy and butter production. Once Kangaroo Valley was opened to free settlement, the population grew from 200 in 1861, to 1,400 in