As it is with most towns and cities in South Africa, the establishment of Randburg can be traced back to a rich farming heritage so engrained in both our present day and past history.
The Randburg area had for many years been occupied by farm owners who can trace their roots back to the Great Trek of 1835.
In the 1850s, four farms were settled by Boer pioneers. These were called Klipfontein, Driefontein, Olievenhoutspoort and Boskop.
One such farm owner was J L Pretorius who owned Driefontein, which extended over a vast area from present day Bryanston to Braamfontein.
In 1886, when Pretorius died, the farm was subdivided among his nine sons, who mostly sold their farms to outsiders.
In 1906, farmer Daniel Brink started farming on a portion of the Driefontein farm, which was much later to be subdivided into the suburbs of Brian Brink, Vandia Grove, Kensington B and Beverley Gardens.
Charles Rocher also bought a portion of Driefontein and renamed his estate Bordeaux after the French city from where his family had originated.
In the same area, Scotsman William Gray Rattray purchased a portion of the adjacent Klipfontein farm in 1891. He renamed his portion Craighall after his birthplace in Scotland. Another portion of Klipfontein was bought by wealthy businessman Sir Abe Bailey who renamed his portion Ferndale.
Street names like Carlton Road, Church Street and Pritchard Street sprang up in the veld.
A portion of the Boskop farm was bought by the famous Rand entrepreneur, John Dale Lace, who converted a farmhouse into a country residence. In 1929 Tom Kelly restored the home and named it 'Hy-Many'.
During that time, the area now known as Randburg was not a part of Johannesburg's boundaries and only started real development in the 1920s. By 1928, pieces of land were being sold in the Randburg area for just R50 each.
During the Great Depression, Johannesburg and its surrounding areas experienced a large influx of people.
At the same time, the country was experiencing a four-year drought, which drove even more people from the rural areas into the cities.
Randburg did not even have electricity until 1955. The introduction of electricity in that year caused commerce and trade to flourish in the area. During the 1950s there were less than
9 000 inhabitants in its nine suburbs.
It is uncertain what the motivation was for buying land in Johannesburg North, as it was far from where the gold digging area was. It was rumoured that it was fashionable to own land in the north. Perhaps it was rumours of gold that caused the purchases, or the great areas for hunting that existed. But what we do know is that Randburg is still as fashionable to live in today as it was in years gone by.
Photos: The Heritage Portal.
