Kangaroo Valley is a river valley along the Kangaroo River in the

Shoalhaven The City of Shoalhaven is a local government area in the south-eastern coastal region of New South Wales, Australia. The area is about south of Sydney. The Princes Highway passes through the area, and the South Coast railway line traverses t ...

region of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, located west of the seaside in the

City of Shoalhaven The City of Shoalhaven is a local government area in the south-eastern coastal region of New South Wales, Australia. The area is about south of Sydney. The Princes Highway passes through the area, and the South Coast railway line traverses t ...

. It is also the name of the small suburb within it, formerly known as Osborne, with a population of 879 in the . The township is accessed by the Moss Vale Road, which links

Moss Vale Moss Vale is a town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in the Wingecarribee Shire. It is located on the Illawarra Highway, which connects to Wollongong and the Illawarra coast via Macquarie Pass. Moss Vale has several he ...

to the

Princes Highway Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney via Melbourne to Adelaide through the states of New South Wales, Victoria (Australia), Victoria and South Australia. It has a length of (along Highway 1) or via the former ...

Bomaderry Bomaderry (locally known as "Bommo") is a town in the Shoalhaven council district area of New South Wales, Australia. At the , it had a population of 8,718 people. It is on the north shore of the Shoalhaven River, across the river from Nowra, the ...

a little north of

Nowra Nowra is a city in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south-southwest of the state capital of Sydney (about as the crow flies). As of the 2021 census, Nowra has an estimated population of 22,584. Situated in th ...

via the B73 route.

General

, the small town has a variety of arts and craft shops, restaurants and cafes, a hotel, club, post office, supermarket and other businesses, including an ambulance station, general practitioner and a chemist. Kangaroo Valley has a bus service to/from

. Kennedy's Bus Company operates to Kangaroo Valley via Cambewarra. Events held in the town include the Kangaroo Valley Agricultural and Horticultural Show in February each year, Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival in October each year, biannually th
Kangaroo Valley Arts Festival
and monthly markets at Kangaroo Valley Village Markets.

History

The first inhabitants of Kangaroo Valley were the

Australian Aboriginal Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

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 Jervis Bay () is a oceanic bay and village on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, said to possess the whitest sand in the world. A area of land around the southern headland of the bay is a territory of the Commonwealth of Australia ...

. Evans reportedly claimed that the valley offered a view that "no painter could beautify." The area was first settled in 1817 when

Charles Throsby Charles Throsby (1777 – 2 April 1828) was an English surgeon who, after he migrated to New South Wales in 1802, became an explorer, pioneer and parliamentarian. He opened up much new land beyond the Blue Mountains for colonial settlement ...

, an explorer and Captain Richard Brooks, a cattleman, opened the area for colonial settlement. The felling and exporting of Australian Red Cedar (

Toona ciliata ''Toona ciliata'' is a forest tree in the mahogany family which grows throughout southern Asia from Afghanistan to Papua New Guinea and Australia. Names It is commonly known as the red cedar (a name shared by other trees), toon or toona (also ...

) 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 couldn't be exported as they would often curdle long before they had completed the treacherous 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 John Horbury Hunt (1838 – December 30, 1904) was a Canadian-born Australian architect who worked in Sydney and rural New South Wales from 1863. Life and career Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, the son of a builder, Hunt was trained in B ...

, and are listed on the (now defunct)

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heritag ...

. 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 arch. The main buildings include a residence and lock-up as well as the courthouse itself. Alterations and extensions have taken place over the years. The local school and the courthouse are both listed on the Register of the National Estate. The valley has changed very little in the past 130 years with reminders such as the Hampden Bridge, completed in 1898, and the oldest suspension bridge in Australia, and old Barrengarry School serving as a testimony to the past when Kangaroo Valley was home to a flourishing dairy industry. Agriculture still exists, though other industries such as tourism and outdoor recreation have since taken over as the primary source of income.

Heritage listings

Kangaroo Valley has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Moss Vale Road: Hampden Bridge

Demographics

In the 2016 Census, there were 879 people in Kangaroo Valley. 69.7% of people were born in Australia and 88.5% of people spoke only English at home. The most common responses for religion in Kangaroo Valley were No Religion 35.1%, Anglican 21.4% and Catholic 14.3%.

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 Flying Fox Pass is a locality in the Barren Grounds Nature Reserve in New South Wales, Australia, overlooking the Kangaroo Valley. It is the site of a former flying fox cablecar which lifted valuable timber from the valley to be transported by r ...

looks over the valley. A few kilometres further north is the

Fitzroy Falls Fitzroy Falls (postcode: 2577) is a village in the Wingecarribee Shire, located within the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, Australia. The locality was known as Yarrunga, but was renamed after the waterfall. Waterfall The wat ...

Cultural activities and events

The district has a strong artistic community and, since 2007, has mounted a biannual arts and music festival. In 2009, the festival celebrated the 80th birthday of Australian composer

Peter Sculthorpe Peter Joshua Sculthorpe (29 April 1929 – 8 August 2014) was an Australian composer. Much of his music resulted from an interest in the music of countries neighboring Australia as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of Aborigin ...

with three concerts devoted to his music. The annual Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival in October is presented by Shoalhaven Folk Club Inc with local, Australian and international performers. The historic township of Kangaroo Valley shares its secrets with a visit to the Pioneer Farm Museum where this historical settlement depicting farm life in the second half of the 19th and early 20th century is brought to life. Invigorating bushwalks are available at the back of the museum park including the Walker Suspension Bridge spanning 72 metres and leading to two marked bushwalks on more than seven hectares of natural reserve.

Education

Kangaroo Valley Public School is a genuine country school with a close knit community and supportive P&C Association. A small school, providing a happy, nurturing and quality educational experience for all its students. For many years, it has achieved and maintained an excellent standard in academic, sporting, community and cultural endeavours. In addition to a local public primary school,

The Scots College , motto_translation = O that we may be worthy of our forefathers , location = Bellevue Hill, Eastern Suburbs, Sydney , country = Australia , type = Independent single-sex primary a ...

Glengarry outdoor education campus for year-nine students is located in Kangaroo Valley, with five 20-bed dormitories, six classrooms, a gymnasium and a theatrette. The Scots College participates in several community events including the traffic stopping ANZAC Day March and Ceremony and the A&H Society Annual Show in February.

Gallery

Kangaroo Valley, Hampton Bridge-1.jpg, Hampden Bridge, 2006 CountryTown0005.jpg, Pioneer Village Museum Kangaroo Valley Roman Catholic Church.jpg, Catholic Church KangarooValley2.jpg, Church of the Good Shepherd

References

{{Authority control City of Shoalhaven Towns of the Southern Highlands (New South Wales) 1817 establishments in Australia