Road Trip - NSW Braidwood/Majors Creek/ Araaluen

As I'm home visiting my folks I thought I would do a 4WD day trip of the area I roamed around in my younger days.  A couple of us used to ride our dirt bikes up the river road to Araluen and we'd stop with friends and devour the peaches grown there.  Sadly, Woollies and Coles have seen the end of the viability of growing fruit there now.

From Moruya, we drove up the Clyde Mountain via the highway to Braidwood where we stopped for lunch at the bakery.  Well worth the stop if you ever travel that way.  Years ago you could fire a gun down its main street and not hit anyone  but these days it's a hive of activity.  There is antique stores, old buildings and wares to look at.


Historical photo of main street of Braidwood


Southern Cross landing in Braidwood

From Braidwood, we drove south to Deua NP to see 'The Big Hole' at Berlang Camp Ground. The walk is about 4 km and mostly uphill.  Another geological feature 13 km further along the track is The Marble Arch.  The distance to it and time constraints saw us 'chicken out' of seeing it.


Crossing the creek along the walk


The Big Hole


An 'unhappy' plant  


Berlang Camp Ground, has a drop toilet

More info here - https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/things-to-do/walking-tracks/the-big-hole-walking-track

From here, we drove back towards Braidwood turning east towards Majors Creek.  We stopped at the hotel Elrington in Majors Creek for a beer. Majors Creek is a gold mining settlement named after Major Elrington.


Elrington Hotel


Sign inside


Historic photo of hotel


Today

More info here - https://www.argylecounty.com.au/towns/majorscreek.html

After a couple of beers (the pub meals looked good with generous servings) and a yak to some locals, we drove south on a dirt track down the mountain to Araluen. There, a friend travelling with me, dropped in on her Aunt Mary for a chat before we took the dirt road, Aralen Rd, (not suitable for caravans or large vehicles) back to Moruya.


Map of area - thanks HEMA


Araluen Valley Hotel,- courtesy Visit Braidwood

Does the Araluen  Hotel still have the big  set of gold scales  behind the bar ?   I have  a book   The History  Of  Araluen     by Lindsay  and Rodger Thwaites .     I camped out at  Belang  , went to the Big Hole and on down to Marble Arch .  I  don't think I could  get down to Marble Arch and back these days .  I spent a fair bit of time around Braidwood and Mongarlow   looking for gold .

 It the good old days there were   28 hotels  in Araluen .

" Crossing the creek " is the head waters of the Shoalhaven River .

Much appreciate you sharing some of your towns background history with us Annie. Seeing what once was, as compared to the changes that have taken place today, can be quite mesmerising.  

Cheers Kon.

[quote="Minermike"]Does the Araluen  Hotel still have the big  set of gold scales  behind the bar ? ]

Mike, I cannot recall seeing the scales on my past visits and I didn't drop in the the pub in Araluen on this trip.

Cheers

It was in the 1970's that I saw them . They were massive , two big pans and must have been nearly 3 foot tall . A lot of gold was taken out of that area , dredges were used .

Thanks for posting AnnieL.

I spend a bit of time in these areas and love the history. We've met families who've been in area, some in the same homes, since the 1820s.

Had to smile at the Elrington pub sign (I've not been in the bar yet) at the "No Irish" sign. Lots of Irish were in the area over many years. Irish Corner was a "major intersection" of people travelling to Araluen from the north. Presumably a few of them also ventured across to Elrington.

The Braidwood bakery does a roaring trade (we stop there quite a bit) and there some other places not as popular but also serve up good quality and value food.

Araluen gold production , 1867 - 1874 158,965 oz . 1875 -1920 98.453 oz . Gold production from dredging , 1900 - 1918 182,000 oz .

It was a delight to read the posts on this topic and although I do not send many posts and I haven't been swingin for more'n a year I found this post informative with great snaps, which defy the lacklustre comments of this forum in another post....noyungan