Pre European History
The area was once part of the traditional land of the Tharawal people prior to colonisation, whose territory stretched from Botany Bay in Sydney down to Jervis Bay on the south coast, and into Burragorang in the ranges. The area was fiercely contested between the Tharawal and the Europeans, particularly between 1812 and 1816 (culminating in a massacre at Cataract Gorge). A group of the Gandangara people near Appin were caught by Macquarie's troops while they were sleeping. At least Fourteen Aboriginal men, women and children were killed. On Macquarie’s orders, the bodies of two of the men were hung in trees as a warning to others.
Introduction of European diseases had a great effect on the Aborigines of the area. The Tharawal and the Gandangara eventually moved into the area around The Oaks. Members of both tribes ended up working for the Europeans in the 1920s when they were placed on reserves and their children forcibly removed until the practice ceased in the 1960s.
Read more about this topic: The Oaks, New South Wales
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