Springfontein

History

The town was established in 1904 on the farm Hartleydale, which was part of the farm Springfontein. The name Springfontein, which is Afrikaans for "jumping fountain", stems from the existence of a spring on a farm. A village management board was established in 1904 and the town attained municipal status in 1912. Farming with sheep, cattle and maize is prevalent in the district, and in the early part of the twentieth century the Springfontein Creameries were one of the main employers. The town is an important railway junction on the main line to Johannesburg, being the point where the Bloemfontein line converges with the East London and Port Elizabeth lines and where a westward line to other Free State towns commences.

Most-observed species

• Pied Crow

  Corvus albus Statius Muller, 1776 · Aves
  154
• Cape Wagtail

  Motacilla capensis Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  115
• African Pied Starling

  Lamprotornis bicolor (Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  97
• Blue Crane

  Anthropoides paradiseus (A.A.H.Lichtenstein, 1793) · Aves
  96
• Southern Anteater-Chat

  Myrmecocichla formicivora (Wilkes, 1817) · Aves
  93
• Black-fronted Bulbul

  Pycnonotus nigricans (Vieillot, 1818) · Aves
  91
• Cape Sparrow

  Passer melanurus (Statius Muller, 1776) · Aves
  89
• Ring-necked Dove

  Streptopelia capicola (Sundevall, 1857) · Aves
  87

Most recent

• M 4.4 — 2017-09-15
  58 km S of Bloemfontein, South Africa