Cullen Bullen is located on the Mudgee Road, 168 km north-west of Sydney, 28 km north of Lithgow. At the 2006 census, Cullen Bullen had a population of 198 people.[1] The Cullen Bullen village is sustained by local mines and the Mount Piper Power Station.
In the language of the Wiradjuri people, who occupied the district prior to white settlement; the word "cullen bullen" is believed to mean "Lyrebird".[2]
The first European in the area was James Blackman, who was surveying a roadway from what is now Wallerawang to Mudgee, in 1821. Blackman was followed in 1822 by William Lawson and later Allan Cunningham in 1822-23.
Robert Dulhunty - the subsequent founder of Dubbo -- took up the first land grant in the area in 1828. He built a homestead on land which now lies on the back road from Cullen Bullen to Portland.