Bularidee Tribe
The Bularidee tribe of the Wiradjuri grasslands people ranged the upland
Macquarie area from below the Bullen Waterhole to near where the Winburndale
Rivulet meets the Macquarie River.
Hill End is situated close to a reliable water supply of
the Turon River and further a field in the Macquarie River. This made Hill End
an ideal situation for a camp, and the region an ideal area for movement between
camps. The availability of stone from riverbeds and supplies of granite and
quartz from the valley for the making of their implements added to the
attraction of the area.
The Aboriginal people around Hill End had traded with, or
shared stone tool forms with, western NSW Aboriginal groups. Examples of trades
between tribes discovered 3 miles from Hill End near Tambaroora Creek, where in
the early 1960’s, road construction workers found 5 stone axes and fragments
of a hard black stone usually found in the area.
Early relations documented by the writings of explorers
such as Evans, Macquarie and Oxley showed that the Wiradjuri people were
ostensively peaceful, displaying signs of fear towards the white parties
travelling through their lands. However, the completion of the road to Bathurst
in 1815, attracted a rapid increase in grazing stock, and it became apparent
that the whites were not temporary dwellers. Minor clashes developed, gradually
increasing in violence and frequency.
With the increase in contact between Europeans and the
Wiradjuri people, the latter became exposed to European diseases such as
measles, small pox and influenza, for which they had no natural resistance. A
small pox epidemic killed many Wiradjuri people, especially in the Wellington
region. No doubt disease spread beyond this region to the neighbouring Hill End
and Bathurst districts.
We know that Aboriginals worked at the gold mines. It
is recognised that the gold rush on the goldfields of central New South Wales
brought nothing but alcohol and immorality to the Aborigines.
