In decades past the Braamfontein Spruit was dammed in Craighall, forming what was known as Rattray's Dam. William Rattray bought the farm Klipfontein in 1891 and renamed it Craighall, nowadays the suburbs of Craighall, Craighall Park and Blairgowrie.
Rattray's - a large lake held back by a 50m wide stone wall, until the dam become silted up in the 1930s - was the premier leisure resort for Joburgers. Today the beautiful stone wall still stands, and water cascades over a small central section. The dam is now filled with reeds and a row of weeping willows, with the water meandering around the island that has formed. The wall is visible from the bridge in Conrad Drive.
Rattray built another weir, about a kilometre further down the river, still intact, with water tumbling over the wall into a series of natural waterfalls. He apparently also built a third weir, which could be one of a series of walls a kilometre below the waterfalls.
Although no one fishes in the Braamfontein Spruit, according to long-time Joburg environmental writer, James Clarke, trout were seen at Lonehill as late as 1978, probably having swam upstream from the Magaliesberg, some 80km north west of the city.
Carp, yellow fish and koi (washed in from domestic fishponds) have been spotted in the river, according to Paulette Malcolm, chairperson of the eco-mmunity for Ward 90. She is keen to establish fly fishing at the river, and with the introduction of lavendar and buddlea along the banks, butterflies may return. She says that frogs and dragonflies are back, mainly the result of a cleaner river.
The Braamfontein and Sandspruit merge at Leeuwkop Prison, at a rocky spot marked by a large gum tree. The resultant river, of several metres across, is called the Jukskei and meets the Ellis Park Jukskei a kilometre or two beyond. Then it gains volume and width as it flows in the direction of Hartebeespoort Dam, north west of Johannesburg.