A Blue Mountains Pioneering Family

The Lower Cox's River from its junction with the Wollondilly River upstream to its junction with the Kowmung River forms the Cox arm of Warragamba Dam. Since the dam filled in 1960 all of the country within three kilometres of the stored water in the old Cox's River has been a designated 'prohibited area' to all except Sydney Catchment Area (S.C.A.) officials. In May 2005 with the permission of the S.C.A., the author, Jim Barrett, was privileged to accompany a group of Kill descendants in visiting this area to try to find the site where George Kill had built his simple home in 1890.

The Kill site was associated with important events in the early history of this part of the Blue Mountains. These included matters relating to the first exploration of the Lower Cox, the local Aboriginal history, the local bushranging activities and the first (19th century) efforts to extract cedar from the Kowmung River catchment.

The core of the story of the Kills of Kedumba is the marriage of George Kill and Mary Ann Hunt and the years which they spent  together on Cox's River. (Adapted from the author's foreword).