#50YearsAgo Back then in Amanzimtoti

IN 1946 there were 17 dairies on small holdings in Toti. The small holdings would deliver milk in the afternoon. April 1947 saw eight-and-a-half inches of rain fall in three days. The CBD and railway station were flooded and the road bridge at Kingsway washed away.

Holiday flat and hotel development took place in Beach Road in 1955, affirming Amanzimtoti’s status as a seaside resort. There were special trains from Johannesburg to the South Coast for holidaymakers.

The tarring of Amanzimtoti’s roads began in 1957 and the Toti Council approved the establishment of a Traffic Department.

The development of local newspapers in Amanzimtoti is attributed to Ivor Language. In July 1955, the first issue of the Amanzimtoti Observer was printed. The Amanzimtoti Observer was the official journal of the Toti Ratepayers Association.

In 1957, it was replaced by the South Coast Courier, a commercial weekly newspaper. The Courier folded in 1959 and the Amanzimtoti Observer began printing again, until it was replaced by the South Coast SUN in 1970.

The South Coast SUN was started by Archie and Jenny Taylor. The couple produced the newspaper from their home in Inyoni Crescent.

THE FIRE FLY

BETWEEN Doonside and Warner Beach, next to the Little Amanzimtoti River and the quarry, stood “The Fire Fly”, a popular roadhouse in the 1950s and 1960s. It was so popular, that people used to camp out there before it opened for the day so that they were guaranteed a seat.

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The roadhouse was expropriated in 1978 for the construction of the new national road.

The quarry was used for the building of the old road that connected Doonside to Warner Beach. The Zoological Gardens, or the zoo, in Toti and was owned by Bill Collard. About 2,400 people would come to Toti on the weekends to visit the orangutans, lions, bears and crocodiles.

Men would come from Europe to view the collection of bird life. The Toti River, however, would burst its banks almost annually and thus flood out the zoo, which was alongside the river. One Sunday evening in 1968, a young man climbed into the lions den and was killed.

SIX INCHES OF RAIN

IN October 1970, six inches of rain fell in one week, prompting fears of tidal waves.

PARKING METERS

ONE-hundred-and-twenty parking metres were installed in central Amanzimtoti in November, 1970.

SANLAM CENTRE

CONSTRUCTION on the R5,5m Sanlam Centre began in 1972. The centre was opened in 1973 consisting of a shopping complex and 25-storey flat-block which can accommodate up to 1,500 people.

The block was re-named Sweetwaters a few years back and the shopping complex re-named Toti Mall. A limpet mine exploded in the centre on December 23, 1985. Three people were killed and many injured. Ten shops were badly damaged.

The Hub opened in Amanzimtoti in 1972. April 25, 1975, flash floods were deemed the worst for 27 years. 1377mm of rain fell in two-and-a-half hours. The Toti CBD was awash. People were seen paddling boats in the main street. 1976 and 1977 also saw severe flooding.

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In March 1976, 240mm fell in three days. Cyclone Emily struck in February, 1977, once again causing the flooding of Amanzimtoti and surrounds.

FIRST ROBOTS

TOTI’S first robot was installed in February, 1981. It was set up to keep traffic moving along Kingsway while the road was under construction.

SEADOONE MALL

SEADOONE Mall was opened on October 27, 1988. Checkers in the mall was the first store in Toti to use scanning. The Village Mall opened in 1991 at a cost of R1,7m.

R50,000 TO USE

THE 1980s saw R50,000 that no-one in Toti knew what to do with. Mrs Leslie, a local long-standing resident from the 1920s, had left money in a trust many years before. However, all the appointed trustees had since died, leaving no-one to administer the fund.

After much controversy, it was decided to build the Warnadoone Lifesavers Clubhouse with the money. Mrs Leslie had lent her name to Leslie Hall, built in the early 1920s by Clifford Watkins’ father, at the cost of 80 pounds.

The hall was situated where the Doonside station crossing is now. Badminton was played in the hall in the 1920s and the amateur dramatic society, under Clifford Watkins, produced many plays there, as well as excellent productions by Bill Ash.

At one stage, Leslie Hall was used by Warner Beach School.  

DID YOU KNOW?

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