Zululand

Babanango in Zululand lies between Nqutu in the west and Melmoth to its east. Babanango was part of a grant of land to European farmers in 1885 by King Dinizulu as a reward for their assistance to him. The town is also close to Ulundi, eMakhosini (Valley of Kings), and Isandhlwana. Today the town is a trading town and showing signs of decline. The gallery features most of the remaining structures in the town, being mainly old trading stores, churches and neglected homes.

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Dundee (originally Talana Farm) was founded in 1882 on land belonging to Peter Smith. The family graves can be seen at the Talana Museum, on the battlefield site. The discovery of extensive coal reserves boosted the establismment of the town. The town was invested after one of the first battles of the Anglo Boer War, on 20 October 1899. The Talana Museum has extensive exhibits at the battle site. This gallery has many images with amongst others St James Anglican Church with the grave of Major Gen. W Penn-Symons, the Dundee Courts with the crest of King Edward VII, Biggarsberg Unity Lodge, the Batavian Swedish Mission, the N.G. Kerk with the Anton von Vouw memorial to the Boers.These are just some of the many images of the town CBD and its buildings.

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This album does not cover all of the graves in this cemetery, but does cover many of the older graves, including a memorial to the 1908 Glencoe Colliery disaster. Also included are graves and memorials to members of the British forces who died in the Anglo Boer War.

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This site was once a thriving coal bye products factory but is now only a shell with locals inhabiting the small numbers of structures that remain.

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Lennox Farm, to the north east of Dundee and in the vicinity of the Talana battle site, is owned and run as a Guesthouse by Dirk and Salome Froneman. It is an ideal stayover for those visiting the battlefields in the vicinity of Dundee. Although not a billet during the Anglo Boer War it dates back to that era and no doubt was visited by forces from both sides. This album has images of the exterior, interior and outbuildings in addition to memorabilia of the Fronemans, both of whom served in SA Armed forces and Dirk a Provincial Rugby player for Free State.

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Elandskraal lies about 15 kilometers east of Rorkes Drift. The village is dominated by the Elandskraal Lutheran Church 1923 and cemetery. (See cemetery gallery for full imagery of graves). Within the confines of the church area is the old church accomodation and the Elandsheim Guest House and resort. A quaint feature of the small village is the old trading store and maize mill belonging to a fifth generation family, Heinz and Monica Dedekind. A few kilometers to the north of Elandskraal is another Lutheran Church, built in 1923 and servicing the local rural school. Alongside this church to the west and across the road are graves of some of the early German missionaries.

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Eshowe a town in Zululand was beseiged during the Anglo Zulu war in 1879. This gallery has images of the Eshowe Fort, Lutheran Church, Street Scenes, Eshowe Old Goal, Fort Nonquayi, King Cetchwayo's monument and many of the old residences dating back to the early 20 th. century. Also included is the Martyre's Cross, Mandawe Cross, grave of the lone British soldier and Sheppards Bush. Also included are aerial images of Eshowe CBD and Goodetrau Dam.

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Empangeni was established in 1851 when the Norwegian Missionary Society set up a mission on the eMpangeni river.The area became important for its forestry and sugar cane growing.The commercial businesses were set up to support these industries.Empangeni has many schools .

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Felixton mill was first established in 1911 by Sir J.L. Hulett and could mill 35 tons of cane per hour. It later merged with Zululand Sugar Mill to the north of Empangeni, with both mills achieving up to 395 tons per hour. The two mills were closed in 1984 and a new mill capable of milling up to 600 tons per hour, opened adjacent to the original 1911 mill site.

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Empangeni Cemetery, on the north western outskirts of the town is a large cemetery with graves dating back to the early 1900's. The cemetery has memorial gates commemorating the early pioneers and this album has a few images of some of the older graves. It is not a comprehensive record. Sadly as with many cemeteries the wall of remembrance has been vandalized.

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Colonel C Pearson after crossing the Tugela proceeded to cross the Nyezane river near Wombane hill. He immediately came under attack on 22 January 1879 but managed to fend it off. The site is marked and is just a few metres off the Eshowe road. Pearson went on , only to become besieged at Eshowe. A relief force later camped near Ginginhlovu and also came under attack on 2 April 1879 which was also repulsed. The battle site is also marked and a cemetary of those killed is nearbye.Further north is the Dunn's Mission School (eMoyeni) established in 1895 on land allocated to John Dunn, who was King Cetshwayo's influential white induna. The town of Ginginhlovu is on the railway line and serves the commercial needs of local people.

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Glencoe was a major railhead for many years and SAR & H had workshops to support the major rail traffic that was routed along this line. Unfortunately with the demise of the Railways and of the local coal mines the town has seen a similar decline in fortune.The railway reached Glencoe in September 1889 and became an important supply point after the relief of Ladysmith.Both Boer & British inhabited the town with the ebb and flow of the Anglo Boer War.

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The Manor Farm house on the outskirts of Glencoe on the road to Washbank, was the farm owned by Kommandant De Jager, brother in law to Karel Landman, also a famed Boer Commando. The album has images of the house and outbuildings and of the family graveyard with many members of the De Jager family. This house was not burnt by the British during the Boer War as it was used as a billet by the British as it overlooked the pass through which the rail line from Glencoe to the coast, ran.

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This Gallery follows the road from Nkwaleni to Vryheid and has images of the 1878 Zulu War of Fort George, Gluckstad village, Bethal Mission with Stallbom graves and a few other sidings and places of interest. Fort George is not very visible and only the worn down ramparts remain.

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Helpmekaar is a small Village on top of Biggarsburg chosen by Chelmsford as assembly point in 1878 for invasion of Zululand - Contains a military cemetary,Police Station & old trading stores.

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Hlabisa is a small village on the Mtubatuba to Nongoma road, servicing the rural area with a large hospital and some small shops in the CBD.It lies to the west of the Hluhluwe - Umfolozi Game Parks on the link road.

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Hluhluwe is on the N2 about 250kms north of Durban and is the gateway to many of the Game Reserves like Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, Mkuze, Phinda,Ndumo and Tembe Elephant Park. This album has images of the street scenes, trading stores ,sports club and churches in this small town. Most of the structures are relatively new and post WWII with little architectural interest. Hluhluwe is a useful stopping off point to obtain fuel and provisions for the tourist attractions in the area.

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Ingogo Village is a short way off to the right of the Newcastle to Volskrust road and within visible distance of Majuba and Laings Nek. The village on the Buffalo River saw much military activity in the two Boer Wars and is close to the Schuinshoogte Battlefiled (8 February 1881). The Village comprises a few old trading stores and admin centre. This album also has images of the Valley Inn which is on the opposite side of the road. This Inn was originally called Femistones named after the owner. The Hotel established on the transport route was used by British soldiers in 1881 and the owner was formerly a member of the Scots Greys. There is a grave near the battlefields of Ela Cornelia who died in 2004.

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Ingwavuma in Maputaland is a small village close to the eastern Swaziland border and north of Josini. It is close to the Border Fossil Caves (not included here and having the oldest recorded human remains) and Dingaans grave. This village has the large Mosvold Hospital and several trading stores that serve the community.

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Jozini Dam is was built on the Pongola River and completed in 1973. The arch dam is 89metres in height and 451 metres wide. The purpose of the dam was to irrigate the flats below the dam. The dam covers part of the Pongola Nature Reserve which was promulgated by Paul Kruger in 1894 and has a surface area of 13272 hectares. The dam has several lodges on its fringes and also the Shayamanzi houseboat that is used for game spotting on the banks and a platform for Tiger fishing. This gallery has images of the dam wall, game, sunsets and images of the houseboat and lodges.

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Josini CBD to the South of the Josini Dam Wall and on the ridge of the Lebombo Mountains is probably one of the most Septic CBD's in KZN, with sewage running down the streets and chaotic development. The Councillors of this town need to hang their heads in shame.

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Kwabonambi is a small village in the middle of the Sugar Cane & timber producing area north of Richards Bay. The town consists of a small residential area, commercial street and country club.

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This gallery has images of the Luneburg settlement which was settled by Germans in the mid 19th Century. The album has images of the Braunshweig Chapel and Mission, Trading Store, Luneburg Lutheran Church and its Cemetery. There are images of the memorial to the early German settlers, and one of the old homes that is now the Whistling Duck B & B. Also included are images of Vic Rohrs farm that was burnt by the British during the Boer War. Luneburg was also the site of a Laager that was built in order to offer protection from marauding Zulu warriors and used in 1877 and 1878. Fort Clery was built in 1878 to strengthen the defences.

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Louwsburg and Magudu are small towns in northern KZN both of which act as administrative centres. Magudu is high up on the top of the escarpment and consists of a Magistrates office, Police station and a few poorly stocked shops. Louwsburg is a little more substantial with the usual shops , Post office, SAPS, Magistrates courts , churches (Methodist & NGK) and schools. Louwsburg is on the route down to the diverse Ithala Game Reserve featured elsewhere in this record. Some of the Louwsburg cemetery graves are featured in the gallery and also some of the support hotels and residences. The town was proclaimed in 1920 and named after David Louw a pioneer in the area

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Mangusi or kwaNgwanase is a small rural town 15 kilometres south of the Mozambique border and close to the Kosi Bay estuary. The town is a commercial centre with many trading stores, filling stations and has the Mangusi hospital that was built by the Methodist Church in 1948. This gallery has images of the many stores and main street.

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Mbaswana is a small trading town at the turnoff to Sodwana Bay and on the route up to Kosi Bay and the Mozambique border. Many of the traders like the Rutherfoords and Morrisons have been trading in this area since the early 1900's and still have a presence here.

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Melmoth is a small town serving the farming community, most of whom are involved in the timber & sugar cane industry. This gallery has images of the local streets, churches, sports clubs and the local cemetery.

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Extract from: https://www.monzi.co.za/index.htm Carved out of the wilderness half a century ago, this Zululand village now offers country living at its best. The story of Monzi is a romance spanning the lives of three generations that tamed the floodplains of the Umfolozi river and infused a once largely inaccessible piece of land with their enterprising and adventurous spirit. It began in 1949, in the aftermath of the Second World War, when the government granted farms south of the present main road between Mtubatuba and St Lucia to 30 ex-servicemen, a pioneering group that would subsequently become know as 'The 49ers'. The farms were on a plain where the Umfolozi sent out watery tentacles and the land was covered with papyrus and reeds. Dorothy Hagemann, one of the two original 49ers still living in Monzi, remembers those first years. "Because the plain was regularly flooded, we had to build our homesteads on a piece of higher ground where each family was allocated eight hectares. There was nothing there to begin with, absolutely nothing. The same went for the farms, which were mostly covered in papyrus. Nobody had any money and so built themselves the most amazing little shacks. Ours was wooden with earth floors." On the 14 June 1949, the farmers gathered at the home of Rodney Adendorff to name the settlement. They decided on Monzi, after the stream that now crosses the fourth hole of the golf course. From then on the settlers started fleshing out a community. The Futululu Tennis Club, named after the nearby Mfutululu forest, was established in August 1950, and in November of the same year the Monzi Women's Institute started operating. A Memorial Hall was built where meetings, dances, church services and concerts were held, but in January 1952 it was converted into a farm school with 11 pupils. The 49ers were allocated greens and fairways to establish and in April 1954, Springbok shottist M. T. Jackson officially opened the course. A simple structure did duty as clubhouse until 1962, when work began on a beautiful thatched-roof building. Periods of successfully cultivating sugar cane on the plains alternated with crippling floods every 10 to 15 years. Reporting on the 1955 floods, the Natal Daily News wrote that among the 40 devastated farms in the St Lucia district were 27 "belonging to soldier settlers (that) lie at the mercy of the flooded Umfolozi, many of these 10 ft under water." When the government made more farming land available in 1986, new families settled in Monzi . Sitting at the southern tip of the popular Elephant Coast, and right on the doorstep of the St Lucia World Heritage Site.

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Nkandla Cemetery to the east of the village has the graves of many of the locals and of the officials who lived in the village in the 1900's. There are also graves of members of Rawstons Horse and the NMP who died during the Bambatha Rebellion of 1906.

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The road to Nkandla from Eshowe is preceded by the pristine indigenous Nkandla forest which is of great interest to birders and tree fanatics. There are a few very run down trading stores on the approaches to the village. The village itself very run down with mainly small trading stores. Alongside the local hospital is the Holy Trinity Church. A separate album has images of the local cemetery which includes some Bambatha Rebellion military graves. On the outskirts to the south is the Ntingwe tea estate.

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Mkuze Village is close to the Mkuze game reserve approximately 300 km north of Durban. Mkuze is a small trading town at the foot of the Lebombo mountains and has a commercial centre, airstrip, and rail siding where mostly sugar cane is transported to the mills. This gallery has images of the village and also the Mkuze Sports Club and Ghost Mountain Inn, which is situated on the fringe of the Village. This gallery has a collection of images of the small Ubombo village at the crest of the southern Lebombo mountains.

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Mtubatuba is a busy trading town just north of the Umfolozi River. It is a essentially a trading town servicing the local farming area and in particular the sugar industry. The local sugar mill on the banks of the Umfolozi River is a large employer. Mtubatuba, named after Nkosi Mtubatuba is also close to many of the wildlife parks such as Umfolozi- Hluhluwe and Mkuze Game Reserve.

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Mtunzini is about 40 Kilometers south of Empangeni off the N2.The town has retained its village like nature and visitors can explore the nearby Ezemvelo Nature Reserve and lagoon and the Raffia Palm forest where the rare Palm Nut Vulture can sometimes be seen.The Village is under threat by an Australian based mining company that has been awarded the licence to mine the indigenous forest covered dunes.

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This cemetery is located close to the main street and has graves of some of the founding citizens of the village, along with a wall of remembrance and Roll of Honour for those who died in WWII.

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Ndumo Village in KZN is a dusty little village with a few trading stores that have not changed much in the last 20 years. The trading stores serve the local rural community with basics and is en route to the unique Ndumo Game Reserve.

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Nongoma is in the heart of Zululand about 60kms north of Ulundi. Nongoma is a very busy trading town with many retail outlets and administrative offices. The town has some interesting churches such as the St Andrews Church, Uniting Reformed N.G. Kerk and the Christ the King Catholic Church.

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Nqutu, which is a small trading town is \"within a spears throw\" of Rorkes Drift, Isandhlwana and Blood River and many warriors would have originated from this area.The town has many old trading stores and also features the well known Charles Johnston Memorial Hospital.

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Paulpietersburg was named after Paul Kruger & Gen. Piet Joubert and laid out in 1888. It was only after the Boer War that the town became part of Natal. The gallery has images of the Paulpietersburg school (1894 ),the NG Kerk, Holy Trinity Anglican Church (new position), the nearby Natal Spa and Kruger Bridge over the Bivane River. The gallery also features street views, the museum and many old buildings and facilities in the town.

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Phelindaba and Mbambanana are two very small trading villages on the Makhatini Flats east of Josini Dam. They are small service centres for the local villagers and farmers.

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Pomeroy is a small town in Zululand about 70 km north of Greytown which is named after Sir George Pomeroy Colley who was killed at Majuba in 1881.The town has small businesses that support the local people. Fort Bengough was used as a redoubt by British forces in 1879 after Isandlwana and is at the south eastern entrance to Pomeroy.The forces of the2/4th(King\'s Own Royal) Regiment were under the command of Colonel E.E.Bray. It was then occupied by Major H.M.Bengough of the 77th Foot.The Gordon Memorial Mission established in 1867 is about 5 km north of Pomeroy and the bell tower is in memory of James Henry Hamilton-Gordon from Aberdeen.There is a bell tower, school, old buildings and a stone church at the mission.

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Pongola is in Northern KZN on the southern border of Swaziland. The town is on a main transport route and is a thriving sugar farming area taking its water from the Pongola River. The town has few buildings or sites of significance with many streets of ribbon shops serving the community.

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Port Dunford is a small village of little significance to the south of Empangeni.Zinkwazi is a popular beach resort town at the mouth of the Zinkwazi River.Tugela Mouth is a small village on the north bank of the Tugela River mouth. This album also has images of the actual Port where Cetshwayo was taken into exile in 1879 after his defeat at the hands of the British Army, as well as the monument commemorating this event.

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Richards Bay is a commercial and industrial centre and is a major bulk ore exporting harbour. Most of the infrastructure and buildings are contemporary.

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Saint Lucia town is at the mouth of the world heritage site Lake St Lucia Estuary. The town is a popular holiday destination and the gateway to the estuary and St Lucia Game Reserve and close to other reserves such as Hluhluwe-Umfolozi.

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Tugela Ferry is a small trading town stradling the Tugela River on the road between Greytown and Dundee. It was an important crossing point during the Anglo Zulu War and a ferry operated until the bridge was built. The local countryside is harsh and dry particuarly on the north bank at Msinga top.The area is still very traditional Zulu in culture but unfortunatey is known for its faction fighting that flares up from time to time.

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Some of the most scenic drives are not the most well travelled. A trip from Eshowe to Nkandla, and then on to Kranskop via Nsuze valley, Jameson Drift and Middledrift will present you with some amazing vistas. As depicted here you will come across old trading stores, river bridges over the Tugela and the Shu Shu hot springs. The Tugela, being on the old Natal Zululand border, saw considerable military activity whenever conflict arose. Many of the vibrant old trading stores are in ruin.

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Ulundi -, the former home base of King Cetshwayo kaMpande was the site of the final battle of the Anglo-Zulu war in which the Zulu\'s were finally defeated.(See separate gallery of battle monument). The town today is a busy trading area and features sites such as the former Legislative Assembly, Heroes acre and many trading stores.

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Umhlabathini is a small administrative centre just north of Ulundi and has essentially been abandoned in favour of Ulundi. All that remains are old trading stores, old homes and the local Municipal offices and Taxi Rank.

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Utrecht established in 1854, has a rich cultural history and this gallery has images of the Military Cemetery, N.G. Kerk (1891), Old Parsonage (1888), Town Hall (1913), Country Club, Petrus Lafras Monument, Uys (1856), Rothmans and Shawe houses, Old Residency (1892), Anglican Church (1899) and many other historical sites.

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Vryheid was in a section of land granted to the Boers by Dinizulu and initially formed part of the independent Nuwe Republiek. After the Boer War it was incorporated into Natal. Vryheid CBD as well as being close to many battle sites, has many buildings of historical significance, schools, churches (especially the N.G.Kerk) and old homes. This gallery also features the Vryheid cemetery which has the graves of many British soldiers who died in the area and the graves of Boer leaders and their families, such as Generals Lucas Meyer and Cheere Emmett.

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