Bredasdorp, South Africa

Pride of place at the entrance of Bredasdorp has a lifesize statue of a Merino ram. Standing proudly at the gates of the Farmers’ Co-operation on Swellendam Road, it honours the sheep which brought prosperity to the district of the Overberg in which the town is situated.

Bredasdorp was built on the farm Lange Fontein, but not without its share of neighbourly squabbling. As with so many South African towns, it started with a meeting to discuss the possibility of establishing a church community, on the 8^th of September 1833 in the Kars River district. However, consensus could not be reached where the new Church was to be, half the delegates favouring the farm Lange Fontein, the others opting for next-door Klippedrift. From the resulting split two separate towns emerged: Bredasdorp en Napier, barely 10 miles apart.

In 1837 the government bought the farm Lange Fontein and on the 16^th of May 1838 the first erven of what was to become Bredasdorp were sold. Michiel van Breda, later the first mayor of Cape Town, was greatly influential in the success of this venture. It was on his farm Zoetendal Vallei that the first merinos were bred, sheep which, together with the great wheat fields, were to become the backbone of the district’s commerce.

An interesting museum complex is to be found around the beautiful old church (1911), with the Shipwreck Museum housing an extensive collection of maritime flotsam. Fine examples of horsedrawn carts are exhibited in the Old Coach House.

The celebrated Afrikaans writer Audrey Blignault was born in Bredasdorp.

The Overberg district is home to South Africa’s national bird, the blue crane, which was threatened with extinction not too long ago. A co-operative effort by Nature Conservation and local farmers however, has resulted in numbers growing considerably less worrisome during the last decade or so.

Business Listings for Bredasdorp

Bredasdorp

Introduction