The beautiful townscapes of this
heritage listed village are easy to appreciate and enjoy by
following our town's historic waling tails.
Points of interests
referenced to the map are listed below. The map with all the details
is available from the Visitors Information Centre located in the
center of the Town and housed in the historic National Theatre.
The heritage trail is enjoyable by easy walk around or by car or
by taking a romantic carriage drive
Tour Historic Highlights by Horse-drawn Victoria
Carriage
Carriages By Cupid will be delighted to take you on a tour of
Braidwood’s Historic Highlights in a Horse-Drawn Victoria
Carriage, seating up to four adult passengers comfortably.
A Guide from the Braidwood Museum will tell you the history
behind the Beautiful Churches, Old-time Pubs, Workman’s Cottages
and Grand Public Buildings as you travel past them. Each Tour
takes approximately 50 minutes.
To book your tour, call
m: 0417 456 093.
Historic Trail - Points of Interest
1. The Braidwood Museum
Built of local granite as the Royal Hotel for
the town’s Surveyor, James Larmer, in 1845, this grand building was
purchased by the Oddfellows Friendly Society in 1882. The Braidwood
Historical Society acquired the building in 1930 and established the
Braidwood Museum, custodian to a fine collection of historical
artifacts and memorabilia.
2. Nos 5 & 7 Park Lane
Typical wooden cottages of the 1850s and
1860s. Number 5 was the home of Mary, wife of Jack Musgrave.
Three generations of the Musgrave family owned and edited the
local newspaper, and Jack was the last of these.
3. The Doncaster Inn
The first grand hotel built in Braidwood in
about 1840, was the centre of the town’s social life for many
decades. In the 1880s it was converted to a convent school for
the Good Samaritan nuns, and then in 1907 demolished and rebuilt
using the same materials, as a new convent. It was reestablished
as a fine hotel in 1980.
4. The Snow Lion
Built at the end of the 19th century on the
site of Wallis’s Auction Rooms, and now operates as a guest
house.
5. The former Anglican Rectory
An early Victorian house with later additions,
stands adj. to the site of the first Anglican Church. Until it
was sold, it was one of the oldest Anglican rectories still in
use.
6. Maria Badgery’s House
48 Elrington Street dates to the 1840s, with
an 1860s addition on the north side. The home is closely
connected to the Doncaster Inn, having served as the owner’s
quarters for the Badgery family for most of the mid 19th
century.
7. Braidwood’s Masonic Temple
One of the earliest Lodges in NSW. The
residence was built for cabinetmaker Roderick McDonald, who also
kept a showroom at this address. The facade has been altered
several times to reflect different uses - the present facade
was completed in 1907.
8. St Andrew’s Anglican Church
One of Braidwood’s finest buildings, is built
of local granite and features some of the first gargoyles used
in ecclesiastical buildings in NSW. The tower, completed in the
1890s, affords a fine view of the town and several early
photographic records of Braidwood were taken from it. Inside,
magnificent stained glass windows and elaborate plaques
commemorate pioneer families, and the fine pipe organ has been
restored.
9. The Doctor’s House
38 Elrington Street is contemporary to the
Anglican Church opposite, and was built by the talented
stonemason, Terence McGrath. McGrath left many fine buildings to
his credit, and even more descendants.
10. No.s 35, 33 & 31 Elrington St
These all date to the 1850s and have been
restored with help from the NSW Heritage Office. Of particular
note is the flat iron roof on No. 35 and the decorative brick
pattern on No. 33. From No. 31 the Backhouse family ran horse
teams, and later a trucking business, bringing supplies up the
Clyde from Nelligen. The large sheds at the rear date from the
horse team days. No. 35 was a gunsmith’s shop.
11. The Old Maternity Hospital
This hospital at 25 Elrington Street was
operated in the
1860s by Anne Gardiner, sister of the Clarke Brothers
bushrangers.
12. No. 24 Elrington Street
Undertaker Edward Gristlestone Morris lived
and worked at 24 Elrington Street, which housed a significant
coffin factory in its outbuildings. Morris managed burials in
Braidwood for most of the mid and late 19th century.
13. Bedervale
A magnificent country house designed by John
Verge and built from 1836 for Captain John Coghill, one of
Braidwood’s first affluent settlers. Coghill’s daughter
Elizabeth married Robert Maddrell, and the house remained in
that family until the 1930s when it was purchased by the Royds
family. Many of the original contents are still intact, and the
private home is open for inspection regularly.
14. The Digger’s Rest Hotel
Circa 1859; one of many Gold Rush hotels in
Braidwood, is adjacent to an early home of the Nomchong family.
Their general store operated from the corner building for eighty
years into the mid 20th century.
15. St Bede’s Catholic Church
Built of local granite by Richard Hannaford
between 1856 and 1862. Originally shingled with wood, the roof
was replaced with fine slate in the late 19th century.
16. The Criterion Hotel
Built in 1870, and familiarly known as Torpy’s
Hotel. One feature was the long stool on the Wallace Street
footpath on which patrons sat to watch the passing scene.
17. The National Theatre
Built as a roller skating rink and Electric
Picture Palace. Now the Community Centre and Visitors’
Information Centre, the building hosts the annual Quilt Event,
and provides a venue for dances, movies and art shows.
18. The Commercial Banking Company
The company built this building in 1888 as a
bank and bank manager’s residence. The imposing Italianate
facade reflects the prosperity of the gold mining era.
19. The Royal Café
Maintaining its flamboyant early 20th century
style facade, this store featured in the Australian movie “The
Year my Voice Broke”, filmed in Braidwood in the 1980s.
20. The Albion Hotel
Built by the MacDonald family in 1872 as the
“Modern Hotel”. A most luxurious hotel during the late 19th and
early 20th century, with a renowned hostess and a reputation for
excellent food. Restored in the early 1980s. The Malone family,
who operated a coaching service for many years, had their
offices here.
21. The Granite Store
This beautiful granite store on the corner of
Duncan & Wallace Streets was built in 1870. Over the years it
was a produce store, butchers and saddlers. The top floor
veranda was added in the 1890s. The workmanship of stonemason
Terence McGrath is evident in the architectural detail.
22. The Royal Hotel
Built in 1890 on the site of the earlier
“Royal Hotel” dating from the 1850s. The original name was
changed in 1969 for the filming of the movie “Ned Kelly” with
Mick Jagger.
23. The Literary Institute
Completed in 1869, with additions in 1891, as
one of Braidwood’s most significant public buildings. The
Institute provided a Library, and encouragement to the
community, to educate and improve themselves culturally, and the
fine upstairs Hall was the venue for many balls and dances.
During final construction the facade was rendered and the
parapet constructed.
24. Ryrie Park
Reserved at the suggestion of Dr Thomas
Braidwood Wilson as a public recreation ground and market
square. Dr Wilson and other prominent settlers provided exotic
plants and flowers for the grounds, and Dr Wilson also presented
a fine brass sundial. His Superintendent Joseph Taylor laid out
the grounds and paths.
25. The Post & Telegraph Office
Built in 1865 as the Telegraph Office, the
Post Office was moved here in the 1890s from MacKellar Street.
Beside the main building is the Postmaster’s residence.
26. The Courthouse
Built in 1900 on the site of the original
Courthouse of 1837. This site saw the earliest development in
Braidwood, the Courthouse being considered essential for the
implementation of law and order in the remote Braidwood
district, the southernmost mainland settlement in Australia at
the time.
27. The Police Residences
Built in 1864 to replace the early wooden
building in the Police Paddock, and the temporary Barracks at “Tidmarsh”.
Heightened Police activity in the district during the Gold Rush
of the 1850s and 1860s followed a spate of bushranger attacks
and violent protests on the nearby Goldfields, and the repeal of
the Police Act of 1859 brought many new, and senior Officers to
Braidwood.
28. The Braidwood Hotel
(formerly the Commercial Hotel)
Built in 1859, the hotel is the oldest in
Braidwood still licensed. One of the grandest hotels in the
Southern Districts of its era, the building features a
magnificent ballroom with accommodation rooms above. The ground
floor and cellars house public rooms and bars. A restoration in
2004 has seen the shingle roof re-instated and the upstairs
rooms restored to a very high standard.
29. The Old Post Office
Dating to the 1840s, the building housed
Braidwood’s first Postmaster and Dispensary. The corner section
was built by Hendricks and Jacobs as the Victoria Store, then
extended by Tweedie & Weston in the 1860s. By about 1910 it was
used by the Nomchong family as a general store. It has since
accommodated several galleries and private apartments. The
Grapevine Café on the southern side was for many years Wright’s
Motor Garage, from which Austin cars were sold until the 1950s.
30. The fine granite Albert Buildings
Built by Hendricks & Jacobs in the 1840s this
building had two shop fronts, business rooms and upstairs
accommodation. The walls originally had tall end gables and
upstairs rooms, and cellars below. In the 1860s the building was
remodelled to house a steam mill, and later variations altered
the roof line and facade. The positions of the two early shops
are still visible in the main granite wall. The rear features a
fine stonewalled courtyard.
31. The Pig & Whistle Hotel
The Railway Hotel, familiarly known as the Pig
& Whistle, stood on this site from the 1850s in anticipation of
a railway service to Braidwood which never arrived.
32. The Police Paddock
This was the site of the first Police Barracks,
a wooden two storied structure with stables below and a
bunkhouse above. The lines of the foundations are still visible
on the rise towards Wilson’s Hill. The Braidwood Gaol, from
which local bushranger Thomas Clarke made a daring escape, stood
slightly to the north of the existing Colonial Motel.
33. The Braidwood Despatch Newspaper
Originally a two storied brick building with
an elaborate glass street front. It has suffered major
alterations but escaped complete demolition. The newspaper was
published for over 100 years.
34. “Tidmarsh”
Completed as an Inn after 1856 by Braidwood’s
first Clerk of Court and licensee of the Doncaster Inn, Patrick
Goulding. Rented as a Police Barracks by Police Superintendent
John Orridge in 1862, Orridge remained here with his wife
Emeline Gordon of Manar after the new Police Barracks were
completed in 1865. Subsequent owners were Rowland Hassall, James
Malone and a series of doctors and dentists. A major restoration
was completed in 2004, and the facade, including the shingle
roof, now appears exactly as it did in 1862.
35. The Old Bakery
Now a popular restaurant, supplied bread to
Braidwood residents for nearly 80 years from the 1850s. There
are two floors of private accommodation upstairs, and the early
bread ovens survive inside.
36. The Corner Hotel
This fine 1860s store was originally built as
a hotel, and then saw use as a bank and as a store. A major
restoration undertaken in 2004 has returned the facade to its
late 19th century appearance.
37. “Elisville”
Built in the 1860s for James Rodd MLA, Member
for Goldfields South. Rodd was prominent in resolving the
Braidwood disputes of the 1860s. He gave evidence at the Royal
Commission on the state of crime in Braidwood, and was active in
the Athletic Sports Association, his home being nearby the
Hibernian Cycle Racing Track. The timber and brick cottage will
shortly be restored to its 1860s appearance.
38. James Larmer building
This fine stone building belonged to James
Larmer and was probably built as an Inn, although by the late
1850s it was divided into two residences.
39. No. 60 Wilson Street
A prosperous gentleman’s house of the
early1880s, this home at 60 Wilson Street reflects the quality
of the late Gold Rush dwellings of Braidwood. It is built on
part of the 1850s site of Patrick Goulding’s “Wallis’s Auction
Rooms”.
40. The Schoolteacher’s House
A wooden two storied home dating to the 1870s
and featuring the romantic styling of that decade, with
elaborate fretted barge boards and steeply pitched gables.
41. No. 1 Coronation Street
This brick home at 1 Coronation Street was
built on land originally reserved for use by the Church and
School Corporation, in about 1880. Subdivisions of the mid 20th
century reduced the farmland around it and Coronation Street was
laid out in the 1950s.
42. “The Nest”
Situated in Duncan Street this wooden cottage
of the 1870s is typical of many built following the Gold Rush.
This and others like it often had an adjoining paddock or market
garden in which the resident would produce much of his own food.
It has been carefully restored by descendants of the original
owner.
43. The Old Power Station
Situated in Duncan Street, the station was
built as a brick stable for the adjoining Hotel on Wallace
Street. In the early 20th century it was extended and converted
to house Braidwood’s first electricity station which ran
intermittently during the 1920s and 1930s.
44. The Poundkeeper’s Cottage
One of few surviving brick cottages on Ryrie
Street, the cottage dates to the 1850s, with later additions.
The Poundkeeper took care of stray horses and livestock, which
were kept in the Pound Paddock at the south end of Ryrie Street
until claimed by their owners, or sold.
45. The Lascelles St Worker’s Cottages
These cottages, moved from their original
sites in the early 20th century, date from the 1860s, following
a subdivision of about 1900. Initially of two rooms, the
skillion rear sections were sometimes enclosed or joined to a
separate kitchen.
46. No. 59 Cowper Street
An 1850s freestone building, with late 19th
century additions and fine Edwardian interiors.
47. The Britannia Brewery site
Once boasting a fine two storied stone brewery
and stone residence. 19th century floods damaged the brewery
building, apparently leaving the brewer stranded on his roof.
48. Braidwood Cemetery
Dating from the earliest days of the
settlement and was fenced into denominational sections until the
1930s. Many important residents and pioneers were buried here
and their gravestones provide much detail about the period. The
memorial for the Special Constables murdered by the infamous
Bushrangers, the Clarke Brothers, is in the former Catholic
section above the creek.
49. The Joint Stock Bank
On the register of the National Estate, the
Joint Stock Bank, built about 1855, was Braidwood’s first bank.
It also has a place in the town’s civic history as the offices
of the Braidwood Municipal Council, and later the Tallaganda
Shire Council after the two Councils were amalgamated.
50. Worker’s Cottages
Situated in Monkittee Street, a charming and
intact pair of 1860s cottages which have survived in nearly
original condition.
51. The Villa, Duncan Street
A fashionable two storied brick home of the 1850s, originally
owned by S. Walker. The striped curved tin awning is visible in
an 1859 drawing of the home. The central hinged upstairs window
is an unusual detail.
52. Hibernian Bicycle Racing Track
At the eastern end of Duncan Street the track
is still visible as a depression in the field. The circular
track featured steeply banked sides and was used for high speed
cycle racing well into the early 20th century.
53. The Wesleyan Church
Built in 1855 with subscriptions from many
prominent residents. Retaining many of it’s original
architectural features and a fine garden, it is now a private
residence.
54. St Andrews Uniting Church
Built in 1861, the Presbyterian Parish having
been established in the area in 1843. The simple white painted
brick building is open daily and welcomes visitors.
