The location of the current township of Bourke on a bend in the Darling River is the traditional country of the Ngemba people of the Wongaibon Aboriginal language group. 

The Ngemba people people inhabited a large area extending approximately southeast of the Darling River, south to Mt Gunderbooka and east to Brewarrina. It includes the present day towns of Bourke and Brewarrina and the settlement of Louth. 

Studies have shown that Bourke area has an incredibly rich and diverse Aboriginal heritage resource that dates from 50,000 years ago to the present day.  Sites range from fish traps on the Darling River, the remarkable Mount Oxley, burial sites, Aboriginal reserve post-contact sites, rock art sites and many more.

Long before Europeans came to Australia, Aboriginal communities such as the Ngemba were applying advanced understanding of engineering, physics, water ecology and animal migration to catch large numbers of fish in traps. The significance of these early Aboriginal technologies demonstrate the sophisticated understanding by Aboriginal people of the land, and its natural resources, which became steeped in legend.

The Ngemba people endured a similar fate to indigenous people across Australia. Dispossessed of their traditional country and in occasional conflict with white settlers, they battled a loss of land and culture and were hit hard by European disease. While the population of the local Ngemba and Barkindji people around the town of Bourke had dwindled by the late 19th century, many continued to live a traditional lifestyle in the region. Others found employment on local stations working with stock and found their skill as trackers in high demand.

A large influx of displaced Aboriginal peoples from other areas in the 1940s saw Bourke’s indigenous community grow and led to the establishment of a reserve in 1946 by the Aborigines Protection Board. The majority of indigenous settlers were Wangkumara people from the Tibooburra region