Most people have heard of the gold rush at Pilgrim’s Rest & Barberton in the 1870s and The Witwatersrand in the 1880s - fewer know about the Knysna Gold Rush in 1884. Millwood Gold Mine is near Rheenendal in the mountains around 30 kilometres from the Garden Route town of Knysna.
Millwood has it's origins in 1876, when ostrich farmer James Hooper found a gold nugget in the Karatara riverbed. Hooper took the nugget to Charles F. Osborne, a government engineer who was working on a new road between George and Knysna, Osborne confirmed that it was gold.
Osborne did some prospecting of his own but was transferred away to the west coast, he returned to Knysna in 1885 and continued his search for gold in the remote forests surrounding Knysna. On finding a promising reef in 1886, he, along with Thomas Bain, the famed pass-builder, compiled an unfavourable report and tried to discourage other gold seekers. Others though spread the word and within weeks a village of 135 stands, hotels, boarding houses, general stores, a post office, police barracks and a hospital had been erected, with fortune seekers from as far away as the UK, California and Australia flooding into the area.
The “town” even had it’s own newspapers and a 3 times a week postal service to Kynsna, and by 1888 the goldfields had a population of over 1000 people. The yields were too low to sustain such a population though, and within 5 years most prospectors started drifting away to find richer pickings around the Witwatersrand.
The town was soon completely silent and abandoned. The Bendigo mine, named after the gold bearing Bendigo reef, with it’s equipment and sorting sheds still stands as a silent, abandoned testament to the gold fever that thrived here over 130 years ago.
A mystical aura still seems to lurk here, people were born here, people died here and were buried there in the cemetery. The abandoned gold workings can still be visited, the area falls under SanParks who maintain the roads. In the past there was a museum and a tea room, these have since been closed down, these days it really is abandoned, on my visit I was the only person there.
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I’m Chris, video creator, and lover of road tripping & the great outdoors. Now exploring the off the beaten track, hidden places of Africa, and sharing the adventure in video, photos and words. Kangela is aimed at those who want to experience gravel road travel and off road adventures, but who don’t care as much about the vehicle that gets them there, as they do about the journey itself and the destination.
I try to provide useful tips and background information about the unusual places that we visit, as well as endeavouring to draw attention to conservation, my intention is always to inform, educate and entertain.
Kangela: "to look at with curious eyes"
Available for collaborations: hello@kangela.com
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