In June 1788, two bulls and four cows strayed from the Government farm in the Domain when the herdsman was absent at dinner, and were lost.

In 1795 Aborigines from the western districts came to Sydney to join the local natives in corroboree in which they pantomimed strange animals, very big, with a terrible roar, who butted savagely. Two convicts who were usually employed in shooting for the officers' mess and who were familiar with the area were invited to check out the rumour. On their return they were able to confirm a herd of cattle grazing on the outer perimeter of the Colony.

On 18 November 1795 Governor Hunter himself with four others and guided by the two convicts set out from Parramatta and after two days found sixty-one head of cattle in the Narellan Creek area.

One of the 'others' with Hunter was George Bass, and it was no doubt the interest kindled in this journey that launched Bass in the following months into his expedition west from Mount Hunter to discover the Burragorang Valley.

As well as prompting Bass's 1796 discovery, the wild cattle played a significant role in the opening up of the Burragorang, and it is perhaps appropriate that this book should emerge exactly two hundred years after Governor Hunter's finding of the cattle and his naming their domain as The Cowpastures. (Jim Barrett 1995).