Illustrated Sydney News Monday 16 Jul 1866 
view of the Araluen Valley Gold Fields

ARALUEN - A distintive character of the gold-fields of Australia, as compared with those of other countries, is the singularly wild and picturesque localities in which they are generally situated. ln this respect Araluen may well be considered to stand pre-eminent in New South Wales. Strangers proceeding from the pleasant, old-fashioned little town of Braidwood (which stands at an altitude of nearly 4000 feet above the sea level) to Major's Creek, and thence down the mountain gorges to Araluen, a descent of some 2000 feet, cannot but be delighted with the grand prospect which gradually opens to the view. At this time of the year it is generally more than usually beautiful, and the familiar appellation of the 'Happy Valley,' which it has gained, is not by any means inappropriate. But, alas ! the terrible scourge of drought under which we have been suffering, had given it a very different aspect. Instead of the luxuriant herbage, tangled underwood, and creeping vines, the countless varieties of many hued flowers, and the sleek appearance of the stock-the eye lately met nothing but parched sandy mountains, charred and blackened trees, the ghastly remains of departed horses and cattle, and an atmosphere obscured by haze and smoke. How- ever, 'It is an ill wind that blows nobody good. ' The miners have had a better chance of working this dry season than ever. The great enemy to contend with is the under current of water, requiring a large amount of steam power to work the field. If you look at the sketch, and consider the tremendous accumulation of water that must be precipitated from the mountains, which completely encircle the valley, you may form some idea of the awful effects after heavy rains. Dense thunder clouds will occasionally break on the summits of the mountains, and, in less, than 30 minutes, torrents of water flood the valley, carrying death and woeful destruction for many miles. In the earlier times of Araluen, the loss of life and property was very large ; diggers in those days were not great studiers of nature they are getting more observant now, and are better prepared. The population of Araluen is fluctuating ; at present it may be estimated at over 2000. There is an appearance of life and go-aheadism quite refreshing to those who are fated to rusticate in the poverty-stricken Braidwood district. The rowdy element is somewhat prominent, as on most gold-fields. The bona fide diggers of the valley are as hard working and manly a class of men as can be met with anywhere, either on the gold mines of New South Wales or Victoria, but there is a large number of idle loafers roaming about on the look-out for prey. This class is chiefly recruited from the flash horse and cattle stealers and bad characters that thickly infest the country all round Braidwood, an evil which is increasing to a shameful extent, and which the authorities seem incompetent to grapple with. The quantity of gold taken out of Araluen for the last five or six years must be very large. As the greater part is carried by private escort it is difficult to arrive at any certainty in this respect, but, from reliable information, we believe there is, as yet, no decrease in the amount. In a future number will be given a sketch of some of the claims in full work.

ARALUEN floods The Sydney Morning Herald- Mon 1 Jul 1867

ON the 24th instant, a correspondent of the Braidwood Dispatch writes to that journal as follows:-

It is my painful duty to have to record another flood, being the fifth we have been visited with within a period of three months. This flood has been a more severe one than any of the four which occurred prior to it. It commenced raining on Tuesday, the 18th, which gradually increased in force during the night, and on Wednesday morning the main creek and its tributaries rose rapidly, the rain continuing to fall steadily all Wednesday. Thursday night we had a strong wind, which came in fearful gusts accompanied by very heavy showers. The rain continued falling without intermission, and at times with fearful violence, until Sunday morning (in all five days) during which period the main creek rose and fell several times, the current continually varying in its course, which made it very trying for the claim owners, who could scarcely tell where to defend themselves from the point of attack. In many of the claims men were engaged night and day in endeavouring to protect their works from the creek breaking in upon them, and were most indefatigable in their exertions repairing and stepping up vulnerable places in their dams as the water began to tell upon them, with boughs, sand bags, blankets and anything they could lay their hands upon. By these means many of the claims were saved from destruction, others again, in spite of all these precautions, have been filled in.

The main creek never ran with more terrific force than on this occasion, and it is surprising that more damage was not done, and that any claims at all escaped its ravages. To attempt to put a value upon the property destroyed would be almost impossible. It will cause an outlay of many thousands to put the claims in the same position as they were this day week. The most unfortunate and trying circumstance in connection with these floods is, that sufficient time elapses between each to enable the claims to get in such a state of repair and forwardness as to be able to either commence washing or to be just about doing so.

The claim-holders have shown a vast amount of perseverance and spirit in the way in which they have, time after time, opened up their claims, to be again filled by one flood after another, and they deserve praise for the energy and capital which have been expended by them, nothing daunted by their repeated misfortunes. Not only has the loss fallen upon and been felt by them to the tune of thousands of pounds, but the miner, the woking man, has also been a sufferer by these disastrous floods to a great extent by his having now been out of employment for the last two weeks, during which period their sufferings and privations have been great, and at the same time manfully met. The bulk of the unemployed here in the mines are married men, men who have been for some time (many for a lengthened period) working in the Valley. They have their little homes, their wives, and families about them and are not in a position to remove.

The storekeepers, butchers and bakers are not in a position to extend their credit. What is to be done? This is not an evil that has been brought on by themselves, by any misunderstanding with their employers, nor by any falling-off of the work on account of the unproductiveness of the mines, but by circumstances over which no human bing could have any control. We have had a narrow escape of being obliged to go without bread, only two days' consumption of flour remaining this morning in the Valley. Two loads, however, arriving this afternoon, to be followed by more to-morrow. The following telegram is from the Floods Relief Committee of Araluen which was despatched at noon of the 26th and has been received by the Colonial Secretary:- "Another flood. Fearful distress in Araluen. Diggers complain of starvation. One thousand and sixty-eight relieved already. Relief fund all but expended. What must be done? Reply by telegraph."

Araluen August 1867 "...shook up in a dice-box and thrown out ugly."

WELL, after much mental speculation as to what sort of a road I should have to travel, the kind of place it would be when I got there, the general habits of the people, how gold-digging was carried on, on the larger scale and the prospects there are for general trade; I have arrived at the far--famed valley of Araluen, whose vast field of gold, a metal "so hard to get and so heavy to hold," has brought together people from almost all parts of the known world. 

The scenery on the line of route from Braidwood to Araluen is new in comparison to anything else of the kind I have, as yet, met within the colony, varied -- romantic -- wild. Other places I have visited, have had little else but gum trees to be seen -- gum on the right, gum on the left, gum stretching far away behind, and gum ahead into which to penetrate. But this track of country, more especially after leaving the flatter parts on the Braidwood side of Major's Creek, is beautifully diversified with that on which the eye delights to rest --fresh flowers and foliage. Nothing would have given me greater pleasure, had time permitted, to have spent some hours, nay, days, wandering in the valley, or clambering the craggy and almost perpendicular mountain sides from base to summit, in quest of botanical beauty. 

If the sportsman can find enjoyment and recreation in his fishing excursions amid the wild and rock--covered banks and impetuous torrent of the Murrumbidgee; or in chasing and stalking the wild--fowl on the placid Lake George. Here, for the lover of botany, is a field where he can find rich and exciting' enjoyment -- a field, on every foot of which you meet with flowers, and other exiles of Eden, from the bottom of the deep valleys, into which, --so it appeared to me-- it was impossible for the sun's, rays ever to penetrate, to the mountains' highest point. 

Here he can find fresh and magnificent specimens of his favorite pursuit; plants peculiar both to the temperate and to the torrid zone. Amongst others, there is that gigantic and king of its genus, the treefern, throwing from its crown its wide spreading leaves nodding like plumes in the passing breeze, inviting the weary traveller of the zig--zag mountain pass to repose beneath its' salubrious shade, a luxury so tempting in comparison with the apology for such offered by the long, narrow, and meagre leaves of the eucalypti. 

But I have not come to Araluen on a botanical expedition, or in search of romantic scenery; my mission here, at least for the present, is for more practical purposes. Araluen appears to be a place sprung up not to supply the wants of a district, but from itself to supply the wants of a world. It is about the last place in the world I should have selected for ease, and comfort. Its buildings appear as though they had been shook up in a dice-box and thrown out ugly. Slab, bark, weather board, and shingle meet the eye on every side. Within these wooden walls I have taken a cursory glance and have discovered unmistakeable signs of trade and commerce bursting into full bloom, raising the expectations and assuring the hearts of the desponding denizens, that there is looming in the distance, and not that far off, as rich or even a richer harvest than ever they reaped from the valley of gold. 

I will leave the butchers, bakers, general storekeepers, &c. for awhile, occupations and callings that must of necessity exist and subsist upon the sweat and sinews of the digging population of the place. The diggers, a class of men that are open, frank, and free, taken as a body, who a few weeks ago were to the very lowest verge of poverty, and, compelled by the force of circumstances, no matter how unwilling they might have been to have accepted, to hold up their hands for the dole of charity, freely given by a generous and sympathizing public. It is not always winter, bright and sunny days must succeed a winter's storm and blast, both in the world of labour and in the world of commerce, as well as in the world of nature. The iron grasp that was put upon the labour market by the late floods has loosened its hold, and work, plentiful, is rising up, Phoenix-like, out of the ashes and sands of the past. Claims just springing into being, and others in full and complete working order and condition are to be met with almost from one end of the valley to the other. If smiling faces, happy conversation, jocularity, and joviality are to be taken as a sign of the times and anticipation for the future. Araluen is on the eve of some of her palmiest and best days.