Goobothery Hill – Kings Grave

Goobothery Monument – King’s Grave is located between Condobolin and Euabalong on the Lachlan Valley Way.

Surveyor-General John Oxley documented Kings Grave on 29 July 1817 on his return journey when exploring the Lachlan River. This site is significant sacred burial site of an Aboriginal chief who drowned while crossing the river in a flood.

On the 21 July 1913 Edmund Milne and a party of men located one of the carved trees still intact and the lower portion of the other. The two carved trees were removed and relocated to the Australian Museum in Sydney and a stone cairn and replica posts were erected to commemorate the Oxley expedition and the discovery of the sacred site.

The two carved trees were removed and relocated to the Australian Museum in Sydney and a stone cairn and replica posts were erected to commemorate the Oxley expedition and the discovery of the sacred site. It provides an important cultural link with ancestors and to pre-contact culture.

Over the years the local Aboriginal community has engaged with its pre-contact culture by protecting the site and maintaining the carved posts. More than fifty years ago, Gundy Wighton carved the two posts currently on site: The others rotted away and the Aboriginal community had to put new ones there with the same carvings. They used chisels and a hot iron to cut them away. By preserving the site Aboriginal people are maintaining their culture.

As Betty Atkinson says, “King’s Grave is where our people can learn about their culture’, she wants her grandchildren to learn about the significance of the site and their culture. For Betty Atkinson, Kings Grave is an Aboriginal Place and is ‘a very, very sacred little spot’, whenever she travels past the site she pulls over to visit it, and maintain a connection with her ancestors: ‘It’s a privilege to be in that spot to know that King Billy is there, from our tribe”

Kings Grave is also an important reminder of the history Aboriginal and non-indigenous people share in the area. Charlie Coe, a local Aboriginal man, believes the monument is an important part of the site as ‘It’s part of the local explorers when they came through and they had an Aboriginal man with them – a guide looking after horses showing them part of their country.”

The site is over 200 years old and is recognised with interpretative signage and a picnic bench which enables visitors to stop, relax and appreciate the significance of this historical site.