The northern suburbs from Melville Koppies
Central. Emmarentia Dam is in the middle distance.
Photo: Gena Orfali
Two names are entwined with the history of Melville Koppies:
Braamfontein and Geldenhuys. Stand on the ridge at the
Lecture Hut and look north. There is a wonderful view of
Johannesburg's northern suburbs. To the east is Westcliff,
behind it Parktown. Northeast are the large white buildings
of commercial Rosebank. Beyond Emmarentia Dam in the middle
ground is Parkhurst. Northwest the rectangular streets and
avenues of Linden stand out. A little further left is the
large open space of Alberts Farm sloping up to Aasvoelkop To
complete the picture, west behind the trees is a tall
building, the police married quarters, and due south over
the ridge is Melville. They roughly mark the boundaries of
what was Braamfontein farm.
Pre-1900
Origin of Braamfontein Farm
The early missionaries,
hunters and traders exploring the country across the Vaal
River used the Missionaries Road to Kuruman, far west of
today's Witwatersrand, where the going was easier. Even
those who turned east closely followed the southern side of
the Magaliesberg to the Hartebeespoort. After 1827
Mzilikatsi was a further deterrent. Fleeing Shaka's wrath,
he had eventually settled on the northern slopes of the
Magaliesberg. His impis cleared the country of people down
to and across the Vaal. They attacked hunting parties and
attacked the main body of trekkers at Vegkop in 1836 and
forced them to retire to Thaba Bosigo. In the following year
Potgieter organised a commando that drove Mzilikatsi into
the Western Transvaal from where a second commando forced
him across the Limpopo. Even then the country remained very
sparsely settled until the British annexations of Natal in
1843 and of Transorangia in 1848 sent further waves of
trekkers across the Vaal. Among them was Gerrit Bezuidenhout
(1822-1876), originally from the Beaufort District, who in
1851 applied for and in 1858 was granted title to the farm
Braamfontein. The name is derived from a spring - possibly
the Braamfontein Spruit - that flowed out from a dense patch
of brambles (indigenous Rubus rigudus). It was a very large
farm (1 500 morgen or 3 500ha) in the Central Witwatersrand
and which included Melville Koppies. On receiving title he
transferred the farm the next day to his brother
F.J.Bezuidenhout. In 1862 F.J.Bezuidenhout subdivided the
farm into three parts of about 500 morgen each.
Subsequent History
The southern portion was
returned to G.P.Bezuidenhout who sold it in 1871 and after
passing through several hands was in 1887 bought by the Zuid
Afrikaansche Republiek Government for 4000 Pounds. The
ground was eventually used for the hospital, fort, market,
tramsheds, power station, the brickfields (later the railway
yards), the Brixton and Braamfontein Cemeteries, the
university, showground, gasworks and, most recently, the
Civic Centre.
The eastern part, again after several
owners, was in 1886 bought by Dirk Geldenhuys for about 4
000 Pounds. He leased part to Edward Lippert, who planted
the Sachsenwald - anglicised during the 1914/18 War to
Saxonwold - for pit props. The rest was leased to the
Braamfontein Estate Company that later donated the Zoo and
Zoo Lake to Johannesburg in memory of Hermann Ekstein, a
former director, for his services to Johannesburg. A few
years later Louw Geldenhuys, Dirk's brother, (the sons
appear to have acted as agents for their father, Lourens)
sold the eastern portion to the Braamfontein Estate Company
for 300 000 Pounds. The buyer was Lippert, who had
paid for a share of the company with his Sachsenwald. The
wheeling and dealing in property and its escalation in value
was typical of goldrush growth. Johannesburg's population
grew from about 2000 in 1885 to 100 000 in 1895.
A blast hole on Melville Koppies Central.
The evidence we have seems to show that the
prospecting here was rather half-hearted.
Photo: Wendy Carstens
When further prospecting was unsuccessful, the company sold
the ground for townships. At this early stage of
Johannesburg, the social stratification found in most cities
appeared. For the wealthy, Rosebank, Westcliff, Parktown and
Forest Town were laid out on the high ground in large
stands, where no shops were allowed. On the lower ground
were Parktown North, Parkview and later Parkwood with
smaller stands and shops for the middle class, while the
working class lived in the south in Turffontein and
Rosettenville in the smallest stands among the mines and
factories. A pattern that was to become common for most
South African towns also appeared. In contrast with Europe
where the poorest lived in the oldest buildings in the
centre of towns, the poorest, mainly non-white, people lived
beyond the brickfields on the outskirts of the town.
The western portion of the farm passed to
C.W.Bezuidenhout and was then bought in 1887 by Frans and
Louw Geldenhuys for 4 500Pounds.
An old map of the original farms. Someone has
marked the "Uitvalgrond" rather roughly.
The Farm Boundaries
The extent of the original farm can be
traced from the boundaries of the townships formed from it.
The northern boundaries of Victory Park (Road No.
5), Parkhurst (22nd.Street), Parktown North (Sutherland
Avenue), Rosebank (Rosebank Road) mark its northern limits.
From Rosebank Road the eastern boundary continues down
Oxford Road, along the western boundaries of Killarney and
the Wilds to the beacon marking the northern tip of the
‘Uitvalgrond'. The ‘Uitvalgrond'was a triangular piece of
unclaimed land between adjacent farms and in which were laid
out the first streets of Johannesburg that now form the city
centre. The eastern boundary continues down the western side
of the Uitvalgrond (Clarendon Place and Diagonal Street to
Commissioner Street). The southern boundary follows the northern boundaries of
Fordsburg, Mayfair, Mayfair West and Crosby (Queens, Bartlett and High Streets),
Coronationville and into Westbury. From here the western
boundary cuts north along the Westdene / Sophiatown boundary, the eastern side of St. Josephs Orphanage, across the
ridge and Westpark Cemetery, through a corner of Linden
(13th. Street) to the western boundary of Victory Park
(Leighton Road).
Subdivision Boundaries
It is more difficult to trace the boundaries of the subdivisions.
Township boundaries are generally along streets, but in some
cases a neighbouring stream would seem to be more
appropriate. The northern boundary of the southern portion
appears to run from Clarendon Place, westwards along Empire
Road (roughly following the Braamfontein Spruit), along the
southern boundary of Melville (St. Swithins Road to Perth
Road), along the eastern boundary of Westdene (Perth Road)
and the western boundary of Hurst Hill (Harmony Street) to
meet the farm's southern boundary. The boundary between the
eastern and western parts runs down 1st.Avenue West between
Parkhurst and Parktown North to where it meets the
Braamfontein Spruit then down the Spruit to Empire road. The
further subdivision of the western portion between the
brothers Frans and Louw Geldenhuys in 1891 starts at the
northern boundary of Melville, which had been sold by then.
It continues northwards along the eastern boundary of the
nature reserve, Orange Road, then across Emmarentia Dam,
possibly along the Braamfontein Spruit between Parkhurst and
Victory Park to the farm's northern boundary.
The Search for Gold
Davis had found gold at Paardekraal
as early as 1852, Pieter Marais in the Jukskei River in 1853
and others thereafter from Heidelberg to Sterkfontein, but
all in small alluvial pockets or small lenses in quartz
veins, none payable. The Z.A.R. government itself, very
conscious of the difficulties experienced at Barberton,
banned all prospecting on the Witwatersrand. (This did not
seem to apply to farms north of the ridge like
Braamfontein). However realising the difference the
discovery of gold could make to its depleted treasury, it
appointed Peter Marais as the official prospector, but
nothing came of it. The government also passed a series of
laws regularising the purchase of farms and mining rights to
provide some protection to landowners.
Nevertheless there was a growing conviction among prospectors and some
landowners that there were rich deposits of gold somewhere
on the Witwatersrand. On the other hand judging from the low
prices for which landowners sold their farms or mining
rights, many were sceptical or did not appreciate the
immense wealth the discovery of a gold reef would bring or
were uninterested. When gold was discovered and fortunes
made it heightened the general resentment of ‘Uitlanders',
which would bedevil South African politics for a century to
come.
The grave of Lourens D C Geldenhuys in the Geldenhuys
family graveyard in Emmarentia. Notice that although
the name "Lourens" or "Laurens" - or just "Louw"
was traditional in the Geldenhuys family, the spelling
varied.
Photo: Maria Cabaço
An exception was Lourens Dirk Cornelius
Geldenhuys (1836-1891) from Swellendam (his family
originally came to the Cape from Germany in 1650) who with
his sons, Frans (1856-1934), Dirk (1858- ) and Louw
(1864-1929) settled at Kliprivier near Heidelberg in 1853.
Although a landowner and a member of the strict and
conservative Dopper Church, he actively sought the rich gold
deposits he believed were somewhere on the Witwatersrand and
he appeared to have a feel for its geology.
Lourens
had visited Barberton and would have become acquainted with
the current theory on gold, namely that it would be found
associated with quartz intrusions. In 1875 he bought half
the southern part of Wilgespruit on the West Rand. Gold was
found there in 1876 and in 1882 he formed the General
Prospecting and Mining Company of Burgers of the Z.A.R. but
it came to nothing. When in 1884 he learnt Fred Struben was
prospecting the area he took him on a tour of the western
Witwatersrand, including Kromdraai, (later opened as a
public digging) and Sterkfontein. They found gold, but
nowhere in payable deposits, until they returned to
Wilgespruit. Here. Struben found promising values in a
quartz band, which he named the Confidence Reef. He bought
the farm from Lourens and, with a loan from the Z.A.R.
government, set up a stamp battery the following year, but
the values petered out and the mine was closed after a year.
Lourens,expecting the Confidence Reef to extend
eastwards, bought a ‘mynpacht' for 4 500 Pounds on the
western portion of Braamfontein, whose many white quartz
outcrops looked promising. The ‘mynpacht' gave him the right
to prospect and mine for minerals and buy as much of the
farm as was needed for mining operations. Lourens exercised
his option and the traces of his three sons' prospecting-
adits (clefts in the rocks), broken rock with blast marks
and a platform, on which stood a blacksmith's forge for
sharpening tools- are still visible in the nature reserve.
Not finding payable gold, the Geldenhuyses went
further east to the farms Elandsfontein Nos.1 and 2 in
today's Bedford View and Alberton.
In 1886 Kruger, petitioned by landowners and prospectors to lift the ban on
prospecting, set up a commission to report on the matter.
Frans attended as the owner of Elandsfontein and
Braamfontein and Dirk as a lessee of part of Langlaagte. On
the commission's recommendation Kruger declared seven
Witwatersrand farms (among which was Elandsfontein) public
diggings. Shortly after Harrison discovered the Main Reef,
the Geldenhuys' located it on Elandsfontein and floated the
Geldenhuys Estates Gold Mining Company, which was later sold
to the Corner House Group.
Emmarentia and Braamfontein
The family then separated. Lourens
remained on his estate on Elandsfontein, now Bedfordview,
from time to time selling portions at great profit. His sons
fulfilled the ambition of young Afrikaners of the period.
Dirk went farming at Ermelo and Frans and Louw took over the
western part of Braamfontein.
Although on the outskirts of rapidly growing Johannesburg , profitable
farming was not easy. Apart from booms and busts in the
share market, which influenced spending and droughts, there
was no established market, which meant hawking produce from
door to door or camping several days beside a popular
thoroughfare.
Louw Geldenhuys's house in Greenhill Road.
The palms are as old as the house.
Photo: Maria Cabaço
Louw married Emmarentia Botha in 1887
and named his farm after her and built her a palatial
farmhouse from the wealth provided by the Elandsfontein
mine. The house still exists as a National Heritage Site at
14 Greenhill Road as does the family cemetery in Hill Road
behind Louw's house. The number of children's graves is a
poignant reminder of the level of medical knowledge and
hygiene of that time (The Geldenhuys family was wealthy yet
of Emmarentia's 15 children only 8 survived to adulthood).
In 1886 Lourens sold the most southern valleys and
ridges to the Auckland Park Estate Company. After Lourens'
estate was distributed in 1891, Frans and Louw registered
the subdivision of their farm, each having about 228 morgen,
the boundary being the present Orange Road then northwards
probably along the Braamfontein Spruit. Servitudes were
written into the Title Deeds, which guaranteed each a half
of the water that still flows perennially from the Westdene
Dam. The stream enters the reserve at the head of the Frans
Geldenhuys Kloof and, after being joined by another stream
from Melville, flows under Beyers Naude Drive. It leaves the
reserve again under Judith Road and continues down to
Emmarentia Dam. It was probably at this time that the water
pipes just above the Old Mulders Drift Road were laid.
In 1895 both Frans and Louw added to their farms by
buying parts of the neighbouring farm, Waterval possibly to
safeguard springs, which irrigated their farms. The
following year they sold the ground on which Melville and
Richmond are built as small holdings. In 1898 Louw, possibly
forseeing the time he would sell Emmarentia to developers,
bought the farm Honingklip of 3000 morgan near Krugersdorp
for 4012 Pounds. His descendants still farm there and have
renamed it Laurentia.
Little is known about Frans, but Louw, eight years his junior, was soon a public figure,
highly respected for his knowledge of mining and mining law
and business acumen. In 1895 he was elected to represent the
Witwatersrand in the Tweede Volksraad which dealt with
finance and mines. He was defeated in the 1899 election
before the war because he opposed the sale of liquor to
non-whites, but nevertheless was brought into the committee
that discussed the ultimatum to the British. This is
remarkable for a young man in his early thirties in a
conservative society where experience garnered with age
carries most weight.
Louw and Frans went to the Natal Front with the Krugersdorp Commando, but surrendered
when the British took Pretoria in 1900 and Kruger went into
exile.
Frans Geldenhuys's house is now the clubhouse of
Marks Park Sports Club. Note the trademark Geldenhuys
palm trees.
Photo: Maria Cabaço
1900-1960
Although the war was to continue for another two years,
when the British took over Johannesburg their aim was to
bring the town and the mines back to life as quickly as
possible. One of their first acts was to issue
certificates of title to landowners. Frans and Louw
obtained theirs in 1901, which allowed them to undertake
transactions in land. Frans and van der Linde laid out
Linden the same year. In 1903 Frans sold the Western
Ridge and the ground for Westdene for 30 000 Pounds and
Louw the ground for Parkhurst. Louw had his farm laid
out as a township, excluding the koppie behind his
house, which he loved. But then he changed his mind.
This was the time that Frans built his farmhouse for his
wife Judith Grobbelaar and which is now the Marks Park
clubhouse.
Like all who
have experienced war, Louw was profoundly affected by it.
Unlike many others he did not become bitter, but instead
acquired a deep compassion for those who had suffered from
it. He and his wife became a byword for their generosity to
individuals and institutions.
The grave of Louw and Emmarentia in the Geldenhuys family graveyard.
Photo: Maria Cabaço
In 1902 he founded
and thereafter supported the Langlaagte Kindertehuis, and
the Braamfontein Government School, which held classes in a
barn behind his house until some years later when it was
transferred to Linden and became the Louw Geldenhuys School.
His greatest work was to build Emmarentia Dam to
give work to young Afrikaner farmers who had lost their
farms and then to put 100 of them to make a living on small
holdings where Emmarentia and Greenside now stand. He did
not charge them rent, but applied the “metayer” system
whereby they paid him a third of their profits. The farm was
transformed into stately avenues between orchards and fields
of vegetables and pasture. They were never short of water as
they were irrigated from Emmarentia Dam or from another dam
higher up the ridge to where water was pumped by a steam
pump. It was possibly the beauty of this scene that held
Louw back from selling his farm.
Louw entered
politics probably for the same motive-to better people's
lives. As a politician he was polite and quiet-spoken even
in a heated debate and he had a wider vision than most. He
was concerned about the sale of liquor, particularly to
non-whites, supported the franchise for women and strongly
championed General Botha's policy of reconciling the
Afrikaans and English-speaking sections.
He was a
member of the City Council for many years. In 1910 he was
elected to Parliament as the member for Vrededorp, from 1915
to 1929 as member for Johannesburg North. He even held his
seat in 1924 during the landslide against General Smuts
following the 1922 Miners' Strike.
Louw died in
1929 and his family sold the farm to developers. Greenside
was laid out in 1931,Emmarentia in 1937 and Emmarentia
Extension which took houses to the very top of Louw's part
of Melville Koppies in1945.
In 1932/3 Frans donated
the kloof through which the stream from Westdene Dam
flows,the poort through which Beyers Naude Drive runs and a
wetland, now RAU sportsfields, to the City Council for a
park to be named the Frans Geldenhuis Park He died in 1934.
The graves of Frans and Judith Geldenhuys in Westpark
cemetery. Much less well known than his brother, he
died near what was then Louis Trichaardt, and was reinterred here.
Judith Road is named for his wife.
Photo: Maria Cabaço
In 1943/4 the City Council bought most of the
ground that had been Frans' farm from his heirs and others
to whom portions had been sold. This included the western
part of Melville Koppies and the Western Ridge above
Westdene. This large open space was used for Westpark
Cemetery, Marks Park and van Riebeeck Park (later the
Johannesburg Botanic Garden).
The Koppies itself was completely neglected. It was used
as a dumping ground, plants, rocks and soil were stolen,
vagrants camped there cutting down trees for firewood
and bringing in litter and alien plants invaded it.
The late HJM ("Sporie") van Rensburg at the Melville Koppies AGM in 2006.
Photo: Wendy Carstens
In 1947 Councillor H.J.M.van Rensburg, alarmed by the
building of houses on the eastern end of the Koppies (in
Emmarentia Extension), started a campaign to turn what
was left of the Koppies into a nature reserve.
In 1950 the Director of Parks, Mr. J.C. van Balen, drew
up plans for a botanic garden in van Riebeeck Park. The
idea was to include Melville Koppies across Judith Road
as it was recognised that despite the damage done to it,
it still had a rich indigenous flora well worth
preserving.
When Mr. Van Balen retired in 1953, plans were shelved
and Johannesburg missed a splendid opportunity. During
1957 it became increasingly clear that the Melville
Koppies were in great danger and that something had to
be done quickly to stop its destruction.
Because of the tremendous educational potential of the area
the campaign to preserve the Koppies was intensified and
broadened. Full support was secured from the South African
Association for the Advancement of Science, Wildlife
Protection Society, Witwatersrand Bird Club, Geological
Society, National Botanic Gardens of South Africa, Botanical
Society, Transvaal Department of Nature Conservation,
University of the Witwatersrand, Transvaal Horticultural
Society, Tree society, Division of Botany in Pretoria and
the Johannesburg Publicity Association. A strong press
campaign was launched.
A delegation from these bodies headed by Professor
Badenhuizen met the Public Amenities Committee of the
Johannesburg City Council on 9/1/1958.. As a result of
this pressure the City Council resolved on 25/2/58 to
approach the Administrator for the proclamation of the
area as a Native Flora Reserve in terms of the Native
Flora Protection Ordinance of 1940. A provision for an
amount of 1000 Pounds for fencing and 900 Pounds for
supervision was to be considered in the 1958/59
Estimates. There were further delays and continuing
degradation, but eventually the provisional fencing was
completed, notices erected and the area proclaimed a
Nature Reserve in February 1959.
The Johannesburg Council for Natural History was
inaugurated at the request of the City Council to advise
the Council on the maintenance and use of nature
reserves in the Johannesburg area. Councillor H.J.M.van
Rensburg was elected Honorary President in appreciation
of his active interest in Melville Koppies, dating back
to 1947 and his commitment in 1957 when representing the
Melville/Emmarentia ward in the City Council to getting
the area proclaimed a nature reserve.
Sources:
Alkis Doucakis, The Origins of Doornfontein and
Adjoining Farms, Historia 42(2), November 1997
J. Gray, Payable Gold, CNA 1957
J. D. Omer-Cooper, History of Southern Africa, 2nd. Edition,
David Phillip Publishers(Pty), Cape Town 1994.
J.R.Shorten, The Johannesburg Saga, J.R.Shorten (Pty), Ltd.
1979
Bulletin of S.A.Party, June 1929.
Master Plan for the Conservation and Utilisation of the
Melville Koppies Nature Reserve, Johannesburg,
28/6/1994,updated January 1998.