Joburg - 130 Golden Years Event Cache

This cache has been archived.

za pienaar family: Time to archive this one.

More
Hidden : Thursday, December 8, 2016
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: other (other)

Join now to view geocache location details. It's free!

Watch

How Geocaching Works
Looking for a different adventure?

Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

Geocache Description:

In celebration of Joburg's 130 anniversary, we will be hosting a special event to mark the day that the first stands, in what was to become the city center, were sold off on public auction.

Date : Thursday, 8 December 2016

Time : 17:00 - 19:00 or later

Venue : Mike's Kitchen Parktown, 15 St Andrews Rd, Johannesburg

Note : All refreshments will be for your own account.

The City of Johannesburg is probably the only metropolis in the world whose location was not dictated by the presence of navigable water. Its earliest history goes back to the discovery of gold on the farm Langlaagte in February 1886 by George Harrison, an Australian prospector. This triggered the Witwatersrand Gold rush and the sudden influx of miners and fortune seekers to the area.

Founded to service the needs of these early mines, the town grew rapidly from a tented camp to a settlement of corrugated iron structures, to a fully-fledged town of permanent brick-and-mortar multi-storey buildings by 1890.

A Johannesburg Timeline


12 May 1886 - George Harrison and his partner, George Walker, enter into a prospecting agreement with the owner of Langlaagte, one G.C. Oosthuizen
14 May 1886 - Colonel Ignatius Ferreira stakes out his camp on the farm Turffontein to serve as a centre for diggers. Shortly afterwards the Main Reef is also located on the farm Turffontein by Louwrens Geldenhuys, and on the farm Doornfontein by Henry Nourse.
8 September 1886 - Nine farms, extending from Driefontein in the east to Roodepoort in the west, are declared public diggings. Carl von Brandis is appointed as the mining commissioner for the area.
27 September 1886 - Von Brandis proclaims the farms Doornfontein and Turffontein as public diggings, and announces that a tender had been called for the setting out of 600 stands.
3 October 1886 - Mining Commissioner von Brandis writes to Pretoria confirming that the Surveyor General had sent him a plan of the stands to be laid out, and that the name of the village is to be Johannesburg. The settlement is named after two officials of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR), Christiaan Johannes Joubert and Johannes Rissik who both worked in land surveying and mapping.
4 October 1886 - Von Brandis announces that the survey of a new village is to proceed and that the plan would be made public once a copy had been received. The Surveyor-General of the ZAR issues an instruction that the farm be surveyed as a township, consisting of 600 stands measuring fifty feet by fifty feet. Randjeslaagte is proclaimed as a village of stands.
19 October 1886 - De Villiers begins the survey of stands on Randjeslaagte. The task is completed on 3 November, and a report is presented on 5 November. At this time his survey includes 748 stands in two consolidated areas north and south of the mining claims.
8 November 1886 - A diggers' committee is elected to assist the mining commissioner in the execution of his duties.
7 December 1886 - Government defines the area of Johannesburg as the entire area of ground formerly known as Randjeslaagte. The fledgling town is laid out on a triangular wedge of "uitvalgrond" (area excluded when the farms were surveyed), situated between the farms Doornfontein to the east, Braamfontein to the west and Turffontein to the south.
8 December 1886 - The first auction of stands takes place.

Acknowledgements: www.sahistory.org.za/topic/johannesburg-timeline-1800-1991.


Joburg - 130 Golden Years


 

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Cyrnfr ybt lbhe "Jvyy Nggraq" fb gung jr xabj ubj znal gnoyrf gb frg nfvqr!

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


Advertising with Us