Wiradjuri people are originally from the land that is bordered by the Lachlan, Macquarie and Murrumbidgee rivers in Central New South Wales. The name Wiradjuri means, 'people of the three rivers' and traditionally these rivers were the primary source of food for the Wiradjuri people. A number of customs were unique to the Wiradjuri communities with one of the most significant being the marking on trees to signify the burial place of a Wiradjuri person. Logging and land clearing have destroyed almost all of these burial markers, with one surviving tree trunk now on display in Bathurst Museum.

By the 1830s European settlement was moving beyond the coast following the fertile land alongside inland rivers and the Wiradjuri people would soon clash with settlers. Dispossession of land and the decimation of their traditional fishing areas spurred on retribution killings from both settlers and the Wiradjuri clans and these violent incidents are referred to now as the Wiradjuri Wars.

The gold rush of the 1850s introduced the most significant period of change for the Wirudjuri people. With the gold rush, inland New South Wales quickly became some of the most densely populated areas the state, and soon significant numbers of Aboriginal people were be lost to diseases introduced with these new settlers. Today there are large Wiradjuri communities in a number of inland centres including Condobolin, Griffith, Wagga Wagga and Parkes.

External Links

Wiradjuri people of the South Western Slopes

The Wiradjuri Walking Track, Wagga Wagga

The Wiradjuri People