A photo of Braidwood from Wilson’s Hill, where Dr Thomas Braidwood Wilson was buried under the pine tree. You can see the pine tree from our letterbox.
Click Here to see Braidwood’s Events Calendar. From Skateboarding Lessons, to Farm Tours, Machinery Shows to our Airing of the Quilts Festival you’ll see a town that would love you to join in the excitement too.
Braidwood’s Origin Story
More than 20,000 years ago, an intrepid indigenous group migrated south to create the Yuin Nation on Walbanga Country. They spoke the Dhurga language.
Braidwood is located within the Yuin Nation. It’s a 3 hour car drive from Sydney, 1 hour from Canberra, 1 hour from Batemans Bay, and 2 hours from Cooma.
The Walbanga Peoples relied on the plentiful supply of vegetables available in the tablelands, such as the tubers of the yam daisy, wattle-seeds, and orchid tubers. In September to May, fish and crayfish were eaten, while possums and larger grazing animals were hunted year round. The Walbanga People and neighbouring groups made annual trips in December and January to the Bogong Mountains (Bogong means Big Fella) and Snowy Mountains to roast and eat bogong moths. It also involved ceremonies and exchanges with other groups.
The lives of the Walbanga People were forever changed by the arrival and early settlement of Europeans in the 1820s. There were reports of the loss of water, fish and native animals essential to the First Nations's diet after the arrival of the settlers.
The settlers also brought exotic diseases, particularly small pox, the influenza epidemic in 1846-7 and syphilis, which devastated the First Nation's people in the region. The Walbanga and surrounding populations culture and traditional life was considered to have been destroyed by 1850. Bogong moth ceremonies, intertribal meetings and corroborees also ceased here.
In 1872, First Nation's Peoples from the south coast and the highlands areas met in a large ceremonial gathering on the Braidwood goldfields, where they also held discussions about strategies to gain back access to their land. After the gathering, the local police officer, Martin Brennan, was approached by 62 members of the gathering, lead by 'Jack Bawn and Alick' who asked for his assistance, and Brennan recorded the following: "I asked Jack what they wanted. He replied, 'We have come to you to intercede for us in getting the Government to do something for us... I have assisted the police for many years, and we want to get some land which we can call our own in reality, where we can settle down, and which the old people can call their home.'..."
On 29 March 1873, Brennan sent the government a comprehensive report detailing the experiences, circumstances and the aspirations of the group. Shortly afterwards he received instructions to name forty acres of Crown Lands in whatever location Jack Bawn desired as an Aboriginal Reserve. However, Jack Bawn and his people were blocked from occupying the surveyed land due to the hostility from surrounding white farmers, but they continued to urge Brennan to press Authorities for the land. Brennan also recorded the following statement in regards to the First Nation's Peoples of the Braidwood and Coast Districts "...whose aspirations at all times were to be allowed some land which they might call their own...; which they might cultivate unmolested for the use of themselves and their families; and where the aborigines of the surrounding districts might meet periodically for the purpose of holding coroborees and other exhilarating games."
As of the 2016 Census, there were less than 100 First Nations' Australians living in the Braidwood Region.
European explorers reached the district in 1822 (Kearns, Marsh and Packer). The area was first settled by Europeans in the 1820s, and the town was surveyed in 1839. The village was located near the headwaters of the Shoalhaven River. The settlement was built with the labour of convicts, and many of the buildings they built around the region are still standing.
The town was named after Dr Thomas Braidwood Wilson. He had been a surgeon-superintendent of ships taking convicts to New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land (now known as Tasmania). He was first granted land in Van Diemen's Land in 1824, which he exchanged for land near Lake George in 1825. In addition he was given 2560 acres (10 km²) which he selected in the 'new country' on two tributaries of the Shoalhaven, Monkittee and Flood creeks. In 1833, the western end of Wilson's grant was resumed and reserved for a future village and a similar area added to the eastern end in compensation. He eventually controlled a total of 12,305 acres in the area. He and his wife and children settled in the district in late 1836. He became a community leader and amongst other things contracted to build the first courthouse in 1837-38. In 1840 Wilson petitioned the government to build a road from Braidwood to Jervis Bay to enable faster and cheaper shipping of the wool clip to Sydney and, with Col. John Mackenzie, supplied the materials and labour for the Braidwood to Nerriga section.
In 1841 Braidwood Farm had 141 residents. Wilson was sent bankrupt due to a drought in the late 1830s and the subsequent depression. He died in November 1843. His wife and infant son had already passed away, and after becoming bankrupt a maid accidentally knocked over a candlestick over and burnt his entire estate to the ground. The townsfolk say he died of a broken heart…
His land was sold for £2,000 to John Coghill, who now owned all the land on the south, east and north of the town. Ironically, Thomas had asked Coghill for a loan of £2,000 to avoid bankruptcy, but Coghill declined. Wilson was buried on this block, high on the hill overlooking the town.
Coghill built the historic house Bedervale, designed by John Verge (who also designed Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney).
A memorial and large pine tree mark the site of Wilson's grave, from which there are views of the town. The path to the grave is no longer open to the public. But you can see the large pine tree from our letterbox when you look towards town, on an otherwise cleared hill.
Gold was discovered in 1851, and for the next two decades the district's population swelled to about 10,000. Supplies and produce to support the workforce on the gold fields came from as far afield as the Canberra region,(though Canberra itself would not be founded until 1913). This prosperity lasted for several years, during which some substantial commercial buildings including banks and hotels were constructed.
Braidwood was the subject of Australia's first Royal Commission in 1867, inquiring into the activities of police officers and managers in the district, concerning the extent to which bushrangers had been shielded and assisted by police connivance and inactivity. The Commission identified several instances of misconduct and found the superintendent of police had failed to exercise 'strict and proper control over his men.
Through much of the 20th century, Braidwood was essentially in rural recession. Amongst other consequences, very little building work was carried out, and as a result the town entered the 21st century with much of its original streetscape and architecture intact. On 30 March 2006 the town and its setting were listed on the NSW State Heritage Register, following a period of unpleasant dispute between those wishing to preserve the town's charm and those wishing to develop it.
Many movies were made in Braidwood, including The Year My Voice Broke, Ned Kelly - Robbery Under Arms (starring Mick Jagger as Ned Kelly. He also penned the song “Brown Sugar” in The Altenburg Cafe/Vanilla in his lunch breaks), and Dad & Dave - on our Selection.
Braidwood has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
Wallace Street: Mill Complex
Pick up a Walking Map of the Heritage Town from the Visitor Information Centre. There’s so much more to the town than meets the eye, and you’ll feel like a local in no time. As it is, most Australians have family history in Braidwood, as 1/10th of the Australian population were here in the gold rush between 1851-1871.
Thank you to Wikipedia for this beautifully concise description of our wonderful town.