Macarthur property

The region now called Macarthur sits within the lands of the Dharawal Nation, whose people are the land's original owners and carers. Their story here reaches back over 40,000 years and continues in the culture of their descendants. The lands of the Dharawal Nation ran from around Botany Bay to Shoalhaven, and west to the foothills of the mountain ranges. The lyrebird, Wiridjiribin, is the principal symbol of the nation.

The land still holds reminders of that long past. Rock engravings, cave paintings and axe grinding grooves are found across the region, along with shell middens. Dharawal songs and stories have survived too, and the culture that carries them is still celebrated. It continues in the descendants of the Dharawal people.

European history in the region began in 1788, soon after the settlement at Sydney Cove, when the whole herd kept by the colony, four cows and two bulls, wandered from its enclosure and was lost. In 1795 European settlers found the herd again, now grown to 61 head, grazing on grassy land between the Nepean and Georges Rivers, about 60 kilometres south-west of Sydney Cove.

The grassy land was given the name "Cowpastures" and made a restricted area so the herd would be protected. The restriction did not last. The cattle were judged too aggressive to tame, and in the end they were destroyed. The country is now the Macarthur region.

The region takes its name from John Macarthur and Elizabeth Macarthur, two founders and pioneers of the wool industry in Australia. The original Macarthur holdings took in the three councils that lie in the region today: Camden, Campbelltown and Wollondilly. In 1803 John Macarthur received a grant of 5,000 acres on Cowpastures land, where he began grazing Merino sheep.

Two of his sons, William and James, brought in grape growing and a commercial nursery, and a dairy founded by James's wife, Mrs Emily Stone, did well. Lachlan Macquarie described the early settlement in his journals. His accounts record Elizabeth Macarthur being met at the family property in a "miserable" bark hut, then the only accommodation there.

In 1816 the Appin Massacre took place in the region, to the south of the town of Appin, and it is described as a terrible event.

Campbelltown and Camden began as rural towns. They became the heart of new urban communities created after the Three Cities Structure Plan 1973. Most people in the region live in Campbelltown, the satellite city, and the suburbs around it, and recent decades have brought new suburbs, among them Glen Alpine, Macquarie Links and Oran Park.

The region's record holds two earthquakes. One struck at Picton on 9 March 1973; it caused $2.8 million in damage, and some minor damage was reported in Bowral and Wollongong, and it measured 5.6. Another struck at Appin on 17 March 1999, and measured 4.8.

Wollondilly Shire covers the region's southern reaches, which are mostly rural, with small-scale industry and commerce. It supplies much of the Sydney metropolitan area and its surrounds with water from Warragamba Dam, Cataract Dam at Appin and Cordeaux Dam at Wilton. The Avon and Nepean Dams also serve the city; they lie in the Wingecarribee Shire but are reached by road through Bargo in Wollondilly. Heritage sites across the region show its history and culture to visitors, and the district draws tourists and people with a keen interest in its past.

Macarthur covers 3,067 square kilometres in the outer south-west of the Greater Sydney area, in New South Wales. Glenfield bounds it to the north, Yanderra to the south, the town of Appin to the east and the hamlet of Nattai to the west. The region covers the City of Campbelltown, Camden Council and Wollondilly Shire.

Most of the region's residents live in the satellite city of Campbelltown and the suburbs around it. The region is generally regarded as the place where the city of Sydney meets the rural countryside. Heritage sites across the region tell its story to visitors, and the district draws tourists and people with an interest in its past.