MERRICUMBENE

Merricumbene was a small mining village that straddled the Moruya River downstream of Araluen.

Alluvial gold mining appears to have begun in the area around March 1859 with newspaper reports from that year indicating it had become ‘a very remunerative gold field’.

In 1870, soon after the Moruya -Araluen Road was constructed, a Halfway House hotel opened in the village (presumably so named because it was (a little over) half way between Moruya and Araluen) which was renamed the Jubilee Hotel in 1889. It seems to have survived until 1903.

A half-time school operated in the village from 1893 to 1904 and Merricumbene horse races were held from at least 1894 to 1898, indicating the village must once have been of a reasonable size.

Gold reefs were mined in the area briefly from around 1911 and then dredging of the river was undertaken from December 1912.

Like many towns in the area, Merricumbene was regularly affected by floods and bushfires. For example, the dredge was overturned by floodwaters in June 1913, and in 1905 the Goulburn Evening Post reported that the bush fires on the Deua River have proved disastrous to several of the residents..Mr. Cooper, of the Jubilee Hotel, lost all his fences about the homestead. The hotel caught fire several times and was only saved by strenuous efforts...Three culverts were burnt clean out on the Moruya Road, thereby stopping all vehicular traffic.