At the 2016 census, Cullen Bullen had a population of 279 people,[2] up from 198 ten years earlier.

[3] 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".

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.