The entire town of Braidwood has been classified by the National Trust as an historic town.

Wallace Street and Museum (courtesy Braidwood Historical Society Inc)

The area's indigenous inhabitants were the Walbunja people, with Europeans first investigating the area in 1822. Positive reports on the land drew the first white settlers to the to the region in the following two years.

The town takes its name from one of its most important early settlers, Dr Thomas Braidwood Wilson, a surgeon who was granted land at the east of the current town. He moved to the area in 1836 and took up pastoral and agricultural pursuits. He also funded a courthouse (1837) where he performed the duties of a part-time magistrate. He filled the role of the district doctor and promoted improved convict conditions and an understanding of the local Aborigines.

Wallace Street and Corner Store (courtesy Braidwood Historical Society Inc)

A later single-storey brick courthouse (1900) was built in Federation-style on the site of the original.

The town was surveyed in 1839 with the first land sales being held the following year. Buildings dating from this time are mostly simple Georgian structures built using stone, brick or rubble. One such example is a building at 185 Wallace Street, which was built in 1835 using sandstone and rubble. It was used as the Australian Joint Stock Bank building until the 1850s and was later the Braidwood Council Chambers.

Braidwood Literary Institute

Braidwood developed as a rural settlement during the 1830s but experienced a rapid change of pace when gold was discovered in the nearby Araluen Valley in 1851-52. Thousands of prospectors set up their tents on the 'Happy Valley' goldfields and Braidwood became a base for the neighbouring diggings.

Bushrangers also arrived in the area at this time and both the Clarke family and Ben Hall operated in the area. One of the family, Thomas Clarke, was arrested for highway robbery on 3rd October 1865 but escaped from the Braidwood gaol. The ruins of this gaol are still visible at the northern end of Wallace Street.

Braidwood Maternity Hospital, built 1854

Tom went on, with other members of the Clarke gang, to further bushranging exploits in the local area, which included the murders of four special constables in January 1867. The Clarkes were finally captured that year and brothers Tom and John Clarke were sentenced to death for their crimes. The Braidwood cemetery contains a monument to the four special constables.

The mining of alluvial gold became increasingly difficult from the early 1860s and eventually the mining companies moved in with underground mining and quartz crushing operations. The last mining company left the area in 1939.

The 19th century Tidmarsh house at Braidwood

The Commercial Hotel (1859) in Wallace Street was one of a number of buildings built to accommodate the gold rush. Development at this time resulted in Braidwood gaining a Victorian appearance, with the earlier Georgian buildings gaining flashier facades.

A St Andrew's Church of England was built in 1854. This church is no longer standing and the current St Andrew's dates from 1881. The tower was a 1900 addition.

St Bede's Roman Catholic Church (1856-1870) is a granite, Gothic-style building that was built to replace an earlier slab chapel. It is thought that St Bede's large bell was mistakenly delivered to Braidwood, having been intended for use in St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney.

The conclusion of the gold-rush days saw Braidwood, which is located about 300 kilometres south west of Sydney, revert to its former role as a rural market centre for the surrounding sheep and cattle district.