What makes Burragorang so special?
It is not so much an emotive response to the fact that a scenically beautiful valley had to be drowned in order to satisfy a city’s need for water. Beautiful it was before, and beautiful it is now, the reason for its ‘special ness’ is more philosophical…
The circumstances under which the Valley was settled are twofold: the controversial issues of convict emancipation in Australia, and the attempt to breach thee western barrier which constrained the development of the young colony.
From the tentative probings in the 1820s and 1830s of convicts, adventurers, opportunists, and, indeed cattle duffers and bush rangers and the subsequent establishment of a basic farming community, time almost stood still for the pioneers and the three or four generations that followed them. The student of our time may ask why is this so, and the reason lies behind the unrelenting cliff lines which separate Burragorang from Sydney and its suburbs.