Wiradjurin

The Wiradjuri are the largest Aboriginal people of New South Wales, organised in hunting and gathering clans west of the Blue Mountains, in the land of the three rivers: the Wambuul or Macquarie, the Kalare or Lachlan, and the Murrumbidgee. Their name is said to join wiray, their word for no, with a suffix meaning having.

In 1813 Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth crossed the Blue Mountains; Bathurst was founded on Wiradjuri land. In 1822 settler George Suttor befriended the warrior Windradyne, called Saturday by the British.

Under Governor Thomas Brisbane land grants swallowed hunting grounds and brought famine, and in 1824 the Wiradjuri rose in the Bathurst War. Brisbane proclaimed martial law and the resistance was broken; Windradyne made peace at Parramatta that year. Corroborees continued around Mudgee as survivors settled on the edges of the pastoral economy.