Kangaroo Valley, New South Wales

Infobox Australian Place
type = town
name = Kangaroo Valley
state = New South Wales


caption = Main street of Kangaroo Valley, 2006
pop = 1,337
area = 256
est = 1817
timezone = AEST
utc = +10
timezone-dst= AEDT
utc-dst = +11
location1= Sydney
dist1= 160 [ [whereis.com.au Whereis website] accessed 13 April, 2007]

Kangaroo Valley is a town in the Illawarra region of New South Wales in Australia, located west of the seaside in the City of Shoalhaven. It is approximately two hours drive south-west of Sydney and about two hours north of Canberra. It is also the name of the small township within it. The historical Hampden Bridge, the oldest suspension bridge in Australia, is located in Kangaroo Valley. The town used to be known as "Osborne".

General

The small town has several arts and craft shops and galleries, several restaurants and cafes, a hotel and licensed bowling club, one post office, one grocery store and two real estate agents. Notably, while there are two real estate agents who always open on weekends, there is currently a doctor practising fulltime and a pharmacy nearby and there is also an ambulance station where a doctor visits once a week.

History

The first inhabitants of Kangaroo Valley were the Wodi-Wodi Aboriginals, 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. [cite web | author=The Sydney Morning Herald| title="Kangaroo Valley" | publisher=SMH | year=2004 | url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/New-South-Wales/Kangaroo-Valley/2005/02/17/1108500196933.html www.smh.com.au ] The first recorded European sighting of the valley was in April 1812, when surveyor-explorer George Evans passed through the area as he traveled north from his exploration of Jervis Bay. Evans reportedly claimed that the valley offered a view that "no painter could beautify." [cite web | title="About Kangaroo Valley" | publisher=Kangaroo Valley Tourist Association Inc. | year=2006 | url=http://www.kangaroovalleytourist.asn.au/dir/aboutkv www.kangaroovalleytourist.asn.au]

The area was first settled in 1817 when Charles Throsby, an explorer and Captain Richard Brooks, a cattleman, opened the area for white settlement. The felling and exporting of cedar trees quickly became the valley's main industry. By the mid 1840s, the valley also became home to a number of dairy farmers, who specialized in the production of butter as other dairy products such as milk couldn't be exported as they would often curdle long before they had completed the treacherous journey out of the valley to neighboring settlements. By the 1870s activity had begun to focus in the area that is now the village, as other centers in the valley such as Trendally died with the valley's dairy industry.

The valley has changed very little in the past 130 years with many reminders such as Hampden Bridge and old Barrengarry School serving as a testimony to the past when the valley was home to a flourishing dairy industry. Agriculture still exists in the valley today though other industries such as tourism and outdoor recreation have since taken over as the valley's primary source of income.

In 1945 an German immigrant by the name of Ben Martin moved to Kangaroo Valley. He started to work for Tyco flow control and quickly rose though the promotions. He soon became assistant director at Tyco flow control, making him one of the most successful people to come out of Kangaroo Valley.

Geography

Kangaroo Valley is a gently sloping wide valley surrounded on its sides by high mountains of the NSW Southern Highlands.

Education

The Scots College has an outdoor education campus for year nine students in the valley, with the name of Glengarry. The Glengarry campus itself consists of four 20-boy dorms, six classrooms, a gymnasium and a theaterette. Glengarry itself spans over 200 acres.

References