Tarkastad

History

The first people to occupy the area around Tarkastad were the San who left an abundance of rock art paintings in Grootvlei just north of the town. The first farmers settled in Tarkastad in 1795 who built watermills, inns and both a Dutch Reformed and Presbyterian Church. the English 1820 settlers moved in, and in 1862 Tarkastad was established as a church centre and became a municipality in 1864. where the Battle of Elands River (1901) was fought during the Second Boer War. The grave of Lt. Richard Sheridan, a cousin of Winston Churchill, who was killed in the Battle of Elands River is located on the Modderfontein farm just outside Tarkastad. Victorian cast iron lamp posts, old water mills and broekie lace adornments indicate the British colonial influence. Tarkastad's first Municipal Manager after apartheid was Smilo Dayi an ex-political prisoner. The first mayor after apartheid was Ntsikelelo Sampempe. A family house in Tarkastad was the birthplace of anti-Apartheid activist and African nationalist, Steve Biko.

Most-observed species

• Pied Crow

  Corvus albus Statius Muller, 1776 · Aves
  33
• Cape Wagtail

  Motacilla capensis Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  29
• African Pied Starling

  Lamprotornis bicolor (Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  28
• Pale Chanting-Goshawk

  Melierax canorus (Thunberg, 1799) · Aves
  27
• Ring-necked Dove

  Streptopelia capicola (Sundevall, 1857) · Aves
  27
• Piping Cisticola

  Cisticola fulvicapilla (Vieillot, 1817) · Aves
  27
• Southern Fiscal

  Lanius collaris Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  26
• Egyptian Goose

  Alopochen aegyptiaca (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  24