The Reverend Thomas Kendall was the first European settler to the area, issued a land grant in 1827. He named the estate "Kendall Dale" and commenced pastoral activities as well as cutting red cedar found in abundance near Narrawallee Creek. Poet Henry Kendall, the grandson of Thomas Kendall was born at the property near Milton in 1839. Further land grants in the 1830s led to a town site being surveyed in 1837 at Boat Harbour (present day Ulladulla). The district prospered through the 1840s on the back of the timber industry.