NELLIGEN is a small town on the Clyde River
inland from Batemans Bay No one now knows how the
township was named or what the origins of
Nelligen were. Various sources have claimed the
Walbanga, Murrinjari and Bergalia tribes lived in
the area prior to European settlement. The first
major European survey of the Nelligen district
took place in late 1827 when two young surveyors,
Thomas Florance and Robert Hoddle, were sent by
the Surveyor-General of NSW, Thomas Mitchell, to
map the areas from Jervis Bay to 'Mherroyah'
(Moruya), as is it was then known, and from
Braidwood to Araluen.
By March 1828 Hoddle was surveying near the
present site of Nelligen and in late 1829 he laid
out 640 acres of 'good forest land at Nellican
Creek' for a settler who never actually came to
the district. By the 1830s timber cutters were in
the district. The discovery of gold at Araluen,
Majors Creek, Captains Flat and Braidwood in the
early 1850s ensured the future of the town. Some
shaft mining even occurred at Nelligen. In 1853 a
steamship was plying the Clyde River to the
present site of Nelligen. That same year saw the
commencement of a road from Braidwood, which was
completed in 1856.
The town, which was gazetted in 1854, became a
thriving port for gold, travellers, sheep, cattle
and various kinds of produce. Gold was loaded on
to boats headed for Sydney. A post office opened
in 1858 and the town's first brick building, the
Commercial Hotel, was erected the following year.
1862 saw the discovery of alluvial gold at
Kiamalla near Nelligen. The town's first national
school was opened in 1865. The town's first
church was built in 1872. and a Roman Catholic
Church in 1895-96. An electric telegraph station
was opened at Nelligen in 1878. Although the
population was 500 in 1892 (when Batemans Bay
still only had 200 people) this number had
declined to 353 by 1934.
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The district's history has been recorded on
various plaques located around the town. In the
park by the riverbank there is a large map of the
original town (circa 1854) which lists twenty
four sites of historic interest including the
site of the original river ferry service which
ran from 1895-1964, and the location of the first
school (opened in 1865).
Close by is the 'Bushranger's Tree'. A plaque on
the 'tree' states that this rather unimpressive
old stump is the remains of the 'Bushrangers
Tree' to which, it is maintained, the Clarke
Brothers were chained awaiting transportation to
Sydney and eventual execution on 25th June 1867
for multiple murders. The Clarke gang operated
during the 1860s goldrush, ambushing shipments
from the Araluen and Nerrigundah fields until
cornered by troopers, led by Aboriginal trackers,
in the Jingerra Ranges during November
1866.
The above information was obtained from the
official Nelligen website.
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