Araluen Valley Gold

Alluvial gold was discovered in September 1851 in the Araluen Valley by two Moruya men, Alexander Waddell and Harry Hicken, after they noticed that the local terrain was similar to the rich gold-bearing area around Ophir, near Bathurst.

Almost overnight, thousands of prospectors moved to the area. Most arrived by ship at Broulee and then walked overland to the goldfields.

Many were richly rewarded. One history suggests that in Majors Creek in the early days prospectors were recovering an average of one ounce of gold per man per day.

Within a year an estimated 100,000 ozs of gold had been recovered, earning the area a reputation of being one of the richest goldfields in Australia.

At its peak in the 1860s and 1870s, 30,000 men (including around 700 Chinese) were working the area. There were around 26 hotels, 20 butchers, and numerous general stores, bakers, shoemakers, blacksmiths, churches and banks catering to their needs.

The wealth of the area inevitably attracted bushrangers. On 13th March 1865, Ben Hall, Johnny Gilbert and Tom Clarke unsuccessfully attempted to hold up a gold coach headed to Braidwood, but were outflanked and forced to flee. One policeman was wounded in the encounter.

In 1865 reef mining (where gold was extracted from seams running through quartz rock by large stamping batteries) commenced. By 1871 five battery crushers were in operation, extracting in excess of 100 oz of gold per week.

Then, hydraulic sluicing (using high-pressure water cannons) was introduced from 1870. This made recovery of gold very much easier because overburden above the gold-bearing strata was often up to 12 metres in depth.

In 1899 yet another major change occurred in the way gold was extracted in the Araluen Valley. Dredging was introduced. This must have been a profitable enterprise, because eventually 11 dredges were working in the area.

By the late 1930s dredging has stopped and the valley basically then returned to becoming a grazing and farming area.