Araluen, New South Wales

Araluen (coord|35|39|S|149|49|E|region:AU-NSW_type:city) is a small town near Braidwood in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, in Palerang Council. It lies in the valley of Araluen creek, that joins the Deua River at roughly the mid point in its course.

The name 'Araluen' is reputed to mean 'water lily' or 'place of the water lilies' in the local aboriginal dialect. At the time of European settlement Araluen was described as a broad alluvial valley with many natural billabongs covered with water lilies. Unfortunately, no such billabongs exist in the Araluen valley today. As with most river and creek valleys in south-eastern Australia, the natural landscape of Araluen Creek and its valley were completely destroyed by rampant and extremely destructive gold mining during the 'gold rush' in the latter half of the 1800s.

Araluen experienced a great population increase during the gold rush and is also home to author Jackie French. The town experienced a decline after a flash flood destroyed the town, leaving a pub as the only standing building in the town. Fact|date=September 2007