Members of DubboChr(39)s Aboriginal community have described the new signs, to be funded by Dubbo City Council, as another positive step towards reconciliation.

The signs are expected to read Ngguurrangbang Tubba Wiradjuri, meaning "welcome to the country of the red ochre people of the Wiradjuri nation", and will go up during a three-year period. The first two, to be erected on the Newell Highway close to the local government boundaries of the city, are scheduled to appear in the next few months.

The decision to include Aboriginal language and illustrations on "welcome to Dubbo" signage follows ongoing talks between Dubbo City Council and Coral Peckham, founder of the Wirrimbah Aboriginal Direct Descendants Corporation representing the traditional people of the Dubbo area.

Yesterday from her Dubbo home Mrs Peckham said meetings with council on the matter began when Tony McGrane was mayor.

"IChr(39)ve now talked to three mayors - Tony McGrane, Gerry Peacocke and Allan Smith,"she said yesterday.

"IChr(39)ve had to repeat things a few times."

The council had first contacted her after receiving a request from Wiradjuri elders seeking recognition of their traditional ownership of the land.

Mrs Peckham, a direct descendant of the Mun Gah tribe, said she had had to explain to the councillors that the Wiradjuri nation was huge.

A "young elder" of the Wiradjuri people, she said its boundaries included Gilgandra in the north, the Murrumbidgee River in the south, possibly Narromine in the west and the Blue Mountains in the east.

Within the nation were many tribes with the five in the Dubbo district including the Mun Gah.

Mrs Peckham said the main tribe in Dubbo, which had settled in the Victoria Park area, had been called Tubba which translated to red ochre.

She said the new signs, to be unveiled by Aboriginal elders, symbolised the "positives" in the community related to preserving and nurturing indigenous culture and traditions.

"This is all part of reconciliation," she said.