"Bimbadeen" Traditional Cache

The cache is located near “Bimbadeen”, previously the Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls’ Training Home, which is on the outskirts of town in Rinkin Street. The lands are described by Tindale as those of the Wiradjuri language group. Aboriginal people from the area identify themselves as being part of the Wiradjuri nation. Wiradjuri means “people of the three rivers” these rivers being the Macquarie, Lachlan and Murrumbidgee.

In 1887 Bimbadeen began as the Cootamundra Hospital which was in operation from 1897 to 1910. The building was designed by government architects, Morell and Kemp of Sydney and the original plan had the main brick building with verandas on four sides and a separate kitchen to the north. The large ward was in the centre of the building and later became the older girls’ dormitory. The entry was from a circular drive in front of the southern verandah which faced the town below. In 10 the Cootamundra District Hospital moved to a new more central site in town and the old hospital on the hil closed. (a cache has also been placed near the hospital building – “Nurses bridge”).

It re-opened as the Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal girls. The girls’ home was modelled/prototyped from the Warangesda Mission/Station girls’ dormitory. The founder was George Edward Ardill, Vice-President of the Aborigines Protection Board and the head of the Sydney Rescue Work Society and proprietor of the Home of Hope for Friendless and Fallen Women. The home was planned according to early twentieth Century Social Welfare policy which housed the children in dormitories according to age. The Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls’ Training Home had its own school up until 1946 after that the girls attended the Cootamundra Public School. The home was unique, as it was the only government-run home designed to train girls for domestic service. It was only for Aboriginal girls and has a significant place in the history of the stolen generations in New South Wales. Non-Aboriginal children were also sent to the Home after 1969.

Girls were sent to Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls’ Training Home until the age of 14 and then they were sent out to work. Many girls became pregnant whilst in domestic service, only to have their children in turn removed and institutionalised back at Cootamundra or Bombaderry. Generations of Aboriginal women passed through Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls’ Training Home until its closure . In 1969 the NSW Aborigines Welfare Board was abolished, Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls’ Training Home was passed over to the care of the NSW Department of Youth and Community  Services and eventually closed its doors in 1974.  After the closure of the Girls Home the site was passed on to the Young Local Aboriginal Land Council who, in turn, has leased the property, on a long term lease, to the Aboriginal Evangelical Fellowship as a Christian vocational, cultural and agricultural training centre called Bimbadeen College.

The buildings are surrounded by extensive lawns and some large trees, such as Pepper Trees and Eucalyptus. The tennis court is still instiu although not maintained. There is an original dairy to the south of the main building which is in poor condition. A caretaker’s cottage was constructed between 1920 and 1940 at the front gate.  This cottage was occupied by my uncle who was the gardener  and my aunt who taught the girls how to sew and cook during the late 1960’s to late 1970.

Modifications were made to the building in 1912 and further modifications in 1979 and it’s current use is a Bible College.

The cache is a small size, and has a pen and log book, bring a pen just in case. Please return cache to its original hiding place and look at the views from the hill and we hope you enjoy this little piece of Cootamundra history.