Welcome to Wiradjuri Land, people of the Guagaa (goanna totem)

The first inhabitants of O’Connell were the Wiradjuri people. The Bathurst Wiradjuri was the most easterly grouping of the Wiradjuri Nation.

The Wiradjuri lived in extended family groups of around 30 people, moving with the seasons and the food across their traditional lands for fishing, hunting and gathering. They travelled for trade and to perform ceremonies to honour their ancestors, their dreaming and their relationship with the land.

Wiradjuri Culture

An important dreaming story is the origin of the platypus near Flat Rock on the Fish River at O’Connell. Evan’s Crown (Gumblang), to the east of O’Connell and close to Flat Rock, was an important meeting place for ceremony for the Wiradjuri and surrounding tribes. Large gatherings of hundreds, sometimes thousands of people would camp there for weeks and months.

A distinctive feature of Wiradjuri culture was the incised trees (dendroglyphs) which marked their burial grounds.