Oudtshoorn, Western Cape
Oudtshoorn is the largest
town in the
Little Karoo region of
South Africa. The town is also home to the world's largest
Ostrich population.
The area in which Oudtshoorn is situated was originally inhabited by the
Bushmen, as evidenced by the many rock paintings that are found in caves throughout the surrounding
Swartberg mountains.
The first European explorers of the area was a trading party led by a certain
Ensign Shrijver, who were guided there by a
Griqua via an ancient elephant trail in January
1689. The expedition reached as far as present-day
Aberdeen before turning back and exiting the Klein Karoo valley through Attaquas Kloof on
16 March of the same year. However, it was only a hundred years later that the first farmers started settling in the region.
The first large permanent structure of the Klein Karoo, a church of the
Dutch Reformed denomination, was first erected in
1839 near the banks of the
Grobbelaars River. The village (and later town) of Oudtshoorn gradually grew around this church; it was named after
Baron Pieter van Rheede van Oudtshoorn, who was appointed Governor of the
Cape Colony in
1772 but died on the voyage out.
A small one-room school was opened in
1858, followed by the formation of a
municipality and the founding of an Agricultural Society in
1859. During the same year work was also started on a larger church to replace the original small one.
Unfortunately, 1859 also signalled the start of a long and serious drought which severely depressed the national economy - by
1865 there was serious poverty. When the drought was finally broken by floods in
1869 the depression lifted and Oudtshoorn was transformed from a struggling village to a town of great prosperity.
The main reason for the large rise in prosperity was the
ostrich, whose feathers had become extremely popular as fashion accessories in Europe; they were especially popular for use on hats. Between
1875 and
1880 ostrich prices reached up to
GBP 1,000 a pair. The farmers of the region, realising that ostriches were far more profitable than any other activity, ripped out their other crops and planted
lucerne, which was used as feed for the ostriches. The rising wealth also finally allowed for the completion of the Dutch Reformed Church - it was opened on
7 June 1879.
Owing to overproduction, the ostrich industry experienced a sudden slump in fortunes in
1885; the town's misery was compounded when it was hit by severe flooding during the same year, which washed away the nearby Victoria Bridge which had been built over the
Olifants River only the year before.
The ostrich industry recovered only slowly and it was not until after the Second
Anglo-Boer War of
1899 to
1902 that a second and bigger boom started. It was during this period that most of Oudtshoorn's famously opulent "Feather Palaces" were built. This boom peaked in
1913, before collapsing in
1914. As a result the region's economy was ruined and most farmers returned to more traditional crops.
C. J. Langenhoven, the town's most famous inhabitant, rose to prominence during the post-collapse period. Considered by many to be one of the fathers of
Afrikaans, Langenhoven was a prodigious writer who provided much of the literature that formed the backbone of the Afrikaans language during its early development.
The Oudtshoorn of today is a large and modern town that relies mostly on tourism, farming and the ever-present ostrich industry for most of its economic activity. The
Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees ("Little Karoo National Arts Festival"), South Africa's largest Afrikaans language arts festival, also takes place in the town on a yearly basis.
Oudtshoorn is the start of the
Route 62 wine route.
Tourist attractions in Oudtshoorn and the surrounding areas include:
* Various ostrich "show farms".
* The Cango Wildlife Ranch [
1][
2]
* The
Cango Caves* Wine
* Incredible scenery
* Incredible biodiversity - in particular, an enormous number of succulent plant species
