and the Murrumbidgee rivers. Archaeological investigations have identified over 200 Wiradjuri campsites around Wyangala, suggesting the native population in the area was originally high. Campsites were located on gentle hill slopes, on elevated crests and on alluvial/colluvial terraces near the Lachlan River course. The name 'Wyangala' (pronounced ) originates from a Wiradjuri word of unknown meaning. However, similar sounding words in the Wiradjuri language indicate it may mean troublesome or bad (wanggun) white (ngalar). The village, situated adjacent the Lachlan River, inherited this name, as did the scattered pioneering settlement of Wyangala Flats. On 27 May 1815, Deputy Surveyor George William Evans was the first European to discover the headwaters of the Lachlan River, naming it in honour of the NSW Governor, Lachlan Macquarie. Two years later Evans and John Oxley explored the Lachlan. They had friendly encounters with the Wiradjuri people, noting that the language they spoke was distinctly different from that used by the indigenous population on the coast. By the time Oxley had reached the Cumbung Swamp, he could advance no further due to the presence of 'impassable' marshland, eventually being forced to abandon the journey and to turn back. Oxley believed he had reached a marshy inland sea, concluding that the interior of Australia was 'uninhabitable' and unfit for settlement. Despite Oxley's bleak assessment of the Lachlan Valley, European settlement of the area began several years after the expedition. In 1831 Arthur Rankin and James Sloan, both cattlemen from Bathurst, were the first white settlers to move into the Valley. Encroachment on traditional Wiradjuri lands resulted in violent clashes between the indigenous population and the settlers. In the midst of this ongoing conflict, new land was made available in the Wyangala area by the colonial government. By the 1840s occupation licenses for land at Wyangala Flats were being auctioned from the Bathurst Police Office, and by 1860 country lots at Wyangala were selling from the Boorowa Police Office for £1 an acre. At this time and until the construction of the 1935 dam, the land at Wyangala was primarily used for wool production. The conflict with the Wiradjuri people lessened by the 1850s, as gold mining and free selection brought new settlers to the area. The unrelenting tide of Europeans overwhelmed the indigenous population, resulting in the occupation of traditional lands, the destruction of sacred sites, and perhaps most damaging of all, the introduction of new