Home to the Tharawal and Gundungurra people, Camden West was part of the area named Cowpastures after escaped cattle were found there in 1795. Granted to John Macarthur in 1823, the land was subdivided into small farms in the 1880s, and dairying became the main industry until the late twentieth century, when new suburbs were made out of Camden West, although much rural land and forest remains.
