Foxground is a locality in the

Municipality of Kiama The Municipality of Kiama is a local government area in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The area is situated south of Shellharbour and the City of Wollongong and is located adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, the Princes Highway ...

, in the

Illawarra The Illawarra is a coastal Regions of New South Wales, region in the southeast of the Australian state of New South Wales. It is situated immediately south of Sydney and north of the South Coast, New South Wales, South Coast region. It encompas ...

region of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It is located two kilometres from 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 ...

, 20 kilometres south west of

Kiama Kiama may refer to: * Electoral district of Kiama, a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly * Kiama, New South Wales, a town * Kiama (spider), a genus of spiders *Municipality of Kiama The Municipality of Kiama is a local government ar ...

. Broughton Creek flows through the valley. The name ''Foxground'' is derived from the once abundant

grey-headed flying fox The grey-headed flying fox (''Pteropus poliocephalus'') is a megabat native to Australia. The species shares mainland Australia with three other members of the genus ''Pteropus'': the little red '' P. scapulatus'', spectacled '' P. conspicillat ...

es. Foxground was originally known as "The Flying Foxes Camping Ground". The

indigenous people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

of this area are from the Wadi Wadi and

Yuin The Yuin nation, also spelt Djuwin, is a group of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal peoples from the South Coast (New South Wales), South Coast of New South Wales. All Yuin people share ancestors who spoke, as their first language, ...

tribes. The first white men to explore the valley were likely to be

cedar Cedar may refer to: Trees and plants *''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae * Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar Places United States * Cedar, Arizona ...

cutters in the 1820s or possibly earlier. As early as 1814, cedar cutters explored the area around nearby Gerringong. In 1890 explosions were detonated in an attempt to remove the flying foxes. After clearing of the rainforest, the area was used mostly for dairy farms. The first white settler was John Blow. His original house was built from split timber slabs, with a bark roof. However, as his circumstances improved, he built a new home, "Willow Glen", which still stands today. An attractive rural valley; now without the shops, school, churches, or the combined milk depot/post office of the past. The school closed in 1950. The

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

structure was built in 1873, and destroyed by fire in 1954. A

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...

church was built in 1861, and sold in 1901. Photographer

Jeff Carter Jeffrey J. Carter (born January 1, 1985) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre who played 19 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Los Angeles Kings, and Pittsburgh Penguin ...

moved onto a 45-hectare abandoned farm in the area with his Californian wife Mare in 1962 and together they set up a wildlife sanctuary, which is documented in her book ''A Wild Life — Bringing up a Bush Menagerie''. The relatively fertile soils and generous rainfall produced high quality sub-tropical rainforest in the area. Significant species include

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

camphorwood ''Camphora officinarum'' is a species of evergreen tree indigenous to warm temperate to subtropical regions of East Asia, including countries such as China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. It is known by various names, most notably the camph ...

, yellow ash, deciduous fig, and Illawarra plum. The rare socketwood occurs here in private property. Average annual rainfall at nearby Kiama is 1,256 mm. However, in 1950 Foxground received 4,263 mm, one of the highest annual rainfalls ever recorded in New South Wales.

References

Towns in New South Wales Municipality of Kiama {{Kiama-geo-stub

See also

References