Oudtshoorn

History

The pioneer farmers in the area that would be known as Oudtshoorn arrived in the 1750s, and became well-established in the area by the end of the 18th century. In addition to rearing livestock, they cultivated wheat and barley, made wine and brandy, and grew tobacco as well as a variety of soft fruit. As market opportunities in neighbouring districts such as George and Mossel Bay developed, the economic benefit of mixed farming came to be understood and utilized. Initially, the pioneer farmers in the area fell under the administrative and legal sphere of Swellendam, but in fact George was the closest that inhabitants had to government headquarters. By the 1820s, the increasing population along the Olifants River and in the valleys of its tributaries increased the need for more local administrative and especially judicial supervision; especially the 1809 Hottentot Proclamation increased the legal and administrative burdens on slave owners. For these reasons, with its founding in April 1811, the magisterial district of George subsumed Oudtshoorn. On 12 August 1847, it was announced in the Government Gazette that a number of wet and dry plots from the Hartebees River would be auctioned on 15 November of that year. The terms of sale stipulated that each plot owner or resident could use 1/500 of the water in the Grobbelaars River, and reserved certain preferential rights in this respect for the original owners. The main reason for the surge in Oudtshoorn's prosperity was the ostrich, whose feathers had become fashionable accessories among European nobility. In 1875, the census counted the town's population to be 1,837. The farmers of the region, realising that ostriches were far more profitable than any other activity, ripped out their other crops and planted lucerne,…

Most-observed species

• Cape Sparrow

  Passer melanurus (Statius Muller, 1776) · Aves
  466
• Southern Fiscal

  Lanius collaris Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  313
• Laughing Dove

  Spilopelia senegalensis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  296
• White-backed Mousebird

  Colius colius (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  271
• Southern Masked-Weaver

  Ploceus velatus Vieillot, 1819 · Aves
  246
• Bokmakierie

  Telophorus zeylonus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  241
• Ring-necked Dove

  Streptopelia capicola (Sundevall, 1857) · Aves
  240
• African Pied Starling

  Lamprotornis bicolor (Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  238

Most recent

• M 4.5 — 2016-10-18
  29 km E of Prince Albert, South Africa
• M 4.1 — 2011-05-14
  39 km NNE of Prince Albert, South Africa
• M 4.3 — 2009-11-05
  43 km NNE of Prince Albert, South Africa