[6] At the time of European settlement Araluen was described as a broad alluvial valley with one or more large natural billabongs covered with water lilies, likely providing some unusual but important habitat for native fish and other aquatic fauna.
[3] New gold mines in the headwaters of the river remain controversial and have attracted considerable public attention for their proposed use of cyanide and breaches of environmental standards.
Despite the sand-slugging the Deua River is bio-diverse and supports an extremely important population of the endangered fish the Australian grayling (Prototroctes maraena)[7][3]—possibly the best in the state of New South Wales—as well as thriving populations of several other native freshwater fish species including Cox's gudgeon (Gobiomorphus coxii), congolli (Pseudaphritis urvillii), Australian smelt (Retropinna semoni) and Galaxiids (Galaxias sp.
It is evident from the following accounts that sand-slugging of the Deua/Moruya Rivers commenced rapidly after the rampant destruction (via sluicing) of the tributary Araluen Creek and its valley in the 1860s.
Here my attention was called to the state of the Moruya River, which is very shallow at this point, being filled, it is alleged, by the silt washed down from the Araluen diggings by the floods.
About sixteen years ago the depth was sufficiently great to allow a vessel of sixty tons register to be built and launched here.
Steamers and coasters can enter the river with safety, and as several improvements have been effected of late years, the vessels find a fair port of shelter.
The increase of silt in the river of late years has been somewhat remarkable, and can only be accounted for from the fact that the Moruya being the outlet for Araluen and the diggings around its head, it is stated that thousands of tons of sand are washed down each flood.
The silting up of the stream would be of little moment were it not that directly opposite the town a sand-bank has during the last year placed itself, rendering the passage of the punt impossible.
I will not therefore at present enter into detail, but simply string together a few memories, mental ones made during my progress from Moruya to Manaro.
One of the first of these memories, I find, must touch upon the Moruya River, a stream which, by the way, of late years has not been conducting itself in a manner likely to benefit or keep the goodwill of the residents along its banks.
The change commences where the Sideling Gold Mining Company has erected its great waterwheel, and is at work reefing and ground sluicing.
The Araluen Creek winds through an extensive valley 1200 feet above the sea level, and surrounded by ranges of mountains about two miles apart.
We have ample proof of the damage sluicing at Araluen has done on the Moruya River; it was, prior to the gold discovery at Araluen, navigable to the township of Moruya, but now the coasters cannot approach within ten miles of the town; the river has silted up to such a degree that rich maize-growing flats, which were formerly impervious to floods, now become submerged when we have what may be termed a moderate rainfall, making the land practically valueless for maize production.