Braidwood was so hopeful about getting a railway that it named a street for the station.
In the 1870s and 1880s, the town was expecting a rail connection. Station Street appeared at the northern edge of town, and a Railway Hotel was built where Wallace Street crossed Monkittee Creek. The trains never came.
Meanwhile, the town itself was changing direction. Its early business centre had clustered near the creek. Gold discoveries to the south and the road to Nelligen helped draw trade over the hill, and by 1885 the main business district had shifted to the southern slope of Wallace Street.
Then drought and depression slowed building almost to a stop. Those familiar shopfronts tell a story of prosperity, but also of plans that never quite worked out.
Which Braidwood shop or business do you remember visiting first? A name and an approximate year would be lovely.
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