diff --git a/tests/bulkdata/__init__.py b/tests/bulkdata/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..5c4defa17d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/bulkdata/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+# these tests can be run from the command line via
+# python manage.py test tests.bulkdata --settings="tests.test_settings"
\ No newline at end of file