Little Forest had the southern most distribution for Australian Red Cedar and as such the species in the area was heavily exploited in the 19th century during the 'red gold' rush.[3] The land was claimed by Reverend Thomas Kendall in 1827 as part of Kendall's original Yatte Yattah land grant. Convicts and timbergetters carted lumber from Little Forest and Yatte Yattah to Ulladulla Harbour where it was shipped to markets. By the 1900s most of the red cedar had become locally extinct and Little Forest became a cattle farming area.[4]