Bents Basin or 'Gulguer' as it is known by the local Aboriginal Gundangara, Dharawal and Darug groups, holds great
significance. Gulguer is an Aboriginal word meaning falling, or shooting down, or swilling round resulting in a large round hole. This may well refer to the movement of the water in the basin when the Nepean River floods.
The Aboriginal people associate Gulguer waterhole with an ancestral creature called Gurungadge or Gurungaty, thought to be a malevolent giant eel or aquatic monster. A prominent figure in the ancestral stories of the area, Gurungadge had a reputation for drowning and eating foreign Aboriginal people who came to drink from the water hole
The first European to visit the area was the explorer and botanist George Caley. He arrived in 1802 and named it Dovedale after a valley in Derbyshire, England. He returned in 1804 to collect plant specimens for preservation. Later the area was renamed Bents Basin after Justice Ellis Bent who became Judge Advocate of NSW in 1809.
By the 1830s European settlement of the region was beginning, with agriculture being the predominant land use. Bents Basin was an important stopping point for early settlers during their travels southwest from the developing east. An inn was established in the 1860s, providing travellers with comfortable accommodation.