Selected at the time for its highly fertile soils and lucrative red cedar,[3] the first settlers in Yatte Yattah used convicts to procure timber, build roads and dig extensive drains along Narrawallee Creek.

[4] In 1827 a local aboriginal man helped Thomas Kendall cut a track from his land grant in Yatte Yattah to a natural bay in the south.

Kendall turned the bay into a boat harbour so he could ship cedar and produce from Yatte Yattah to Sydney and Illawarra.

There he ran cattle and felled timber including Australian red cedar, utilising ticket-of-leave men for labour.

[5][10][11] Decades later when the private township of Milton was incorporated by timbergetters 4 km to the south, plans to develop Yatte Yattah into a fully fledged town were abandoned.

[14] Yatte Yattah was recognised by early colonial settlers for its highly productive farmland, particularly in Boolgatta Flat where James Warden used ticket-of-leave convict labour to build an extensive network of drains along the freshwater portion of Narrawallee Creek, to make better use of the alluvial soils.

[16][18] Although large swathes of rainforest were cleared by early settlers, Yatte Yattah remains rich in biodiversity and is surrounded by numerous nature reserves.

Yatte Yattah has a diverse range of habitats including remnant Milton Rainforest, several freshwater creeks and tidal mangrove flats to the east.

[19] Yatte Yattah is located in a fertile stretch of hills and valleys between the Pacific Ocean to the East and the steep escarpment of Little Forest Plateau to the west.

Yatte Yattah is primarily composed of Milton Monzonite and Permian sediments formed in the Early Triassic period.

[15][16] From his large estate in Yatte Yattah, Thomas Kendall played a pivotal role in the early development of the Milton-Ulladulla area.

[8] Labelled as a 'South Coast Pioneer',[26] James Warden was a shipwright, Australian politician in the NSW Legislative Assembly and purchaser of Boolgatta Estate, Yatte Yattah.

[27] Max Atkins was mayor of Shoalhaven from 1987 until 1999 and an award-winning breeder of stud French Limousin beef cattle at former Willowbank Estate, Yatte Yattah.

[31] The Yatte Yattah Cheese Factory was built by the Yatteyattah Co-operative Dairy Company in 1907 with the objective to produce butter.

A number of businesses, properties and homes were destroyed on New Year's Eve including the Eagleview Farm Piggery and the Yatte Yattah Nursery.