John Leo McNamara OAM (1922–2004) was a bushman, poet, historian and author mainly responsible for documenting the life and community of the little-known and now lost Cordeaux River settlement south west of Wollongong.
It was resumed and par-flooded by the Sydney Catchment Authority who had earmarked the land for water collection as early as the 1860s, just a few years into the establishment of the area for major agriculture.
Most of the exodus occurred between 1943 and 1946, after a fruit fly epidemic had laid waste to most of the industry that had not already been depleted by the suffering of the Great Depression and Second World War.
McNamara spent his life as an expert timber-getter, or self-referentially, a "bushman", and developed his poetry writing skills in his spare moments.
[5] He was awarded the OAM in the 2005 Australia Day Honours, for services "to the community of the Illawarra region, particularly as a poet, author and historian".