The area was traditional lands of the Ngunnawalpeople, but was also traversed by other tribes going to the coast or the Monaro during the Bogong moth season. Stone artefacts dating back 20,000 years have been found at nearby Lake George.
The Lake Bathurst was discovered in April 1818 by an exploration commissioned by Governor Lachlan Macquarie to find a route from the inland to the settlement on the south coast at Jervis Bay that was headed by Surveyor GeneralJames Meehan. A village of Mulwaree was gazetted in the 19th century on the southern shore of Lake Bathurst, but failed to grow, moving 1½km to the west at the site of Tarago, on the main trainline.
^Robert McLean, The New atlas of Australia : the complete work containing over one hundred maps and full descriptive geography of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, together with numerous illustrations and copious indices (Sydney :J. Sands, [1886) Map 11.
^McDonald, J. Kay. (1985). Exploring the ACT and Southeast New South Wales. Kangaroo Press: Sydney.