My name is Paula Griffiths and for the past number of years I live between Vanuatu and Australia, Toowoomba.
However, I grew up on a farm which was part of the farm Lilyvale, what we called the plot, but which was by Australian standards a smallholding. Our farm (or part thereof) now constitutes your 7 Dams Conservancy. I doubt if I can get back to Africa for a few years. 5 of my family and friends were murdered and I have some scars that will take time to heal. Hopefully there is still life in the old duck yet. I might get back one day.
The stone wall dam
(Paula made contact with us by e-mail after seeing our web page and the photo of someone running across the dam wall. She said … JH )
The wall looks like the wall in image 27/33 in your gallery. If I was walking down from the road, I would bypass the first small dam to get to it. I would not let people run on the wall but possibly I am too much of a worrier. Dad did not let us obviously because he had seen the first one fell down and also because children do have accidents.
Dad spent many years looking for water. The drought in the 60’s was really bad and eventually the geologists found a dyke that gave us the most calcified water ever, but at least it was water. Part of his desire for water was expressed in the building of the stone wall dam. I remember Petrus the builder well. He looked old to me, most probably in his 30s or early 40s in the 1960s. The wall was built by the time I was 10, so about 1966. It might have been a few years before.
(We were under the impression that the dam was built during the Anglo-Boer war by the British to water their horses, but that dam is situated elsewhere. JH)
My brother Rodney, who now lives in Perth Australia, remembered that in the 60s he deliberately let some carp go free in that stone wall dam. He asked me to ask if any have been seen. I only ever saw turtles and frogs.
I think that the dam would be almost completely overgrown with reeds. I saw that in 2011 when I returned for a while.
The drought (in the 60’s) was so bad that our cattle and sheep ate the Randjiebos that grew everywhere. The meat had a dreadful taste as a result. Dad insisted we eat it. Eventually with more rain and grass growing profusely, the cows ate better. The farm became green in the 70s after the large Gariep dam was built. I have often wondered if that helped change the climate around Bloem a bit.
When we built that stone wall dam, there were no Hadidas. They only arrived about 1970 or so when the climate changed. However, blue cranes started living near that dam and dad was very pleased. He loved nature.
The poplar dam
Why is the lower dam with the poplars called Coopers? (Because the present owners are Coopers, well known in legal circles. JH.) I remember Dad bought that dam and surrounding farmland from a Miss Goodrick. She was not a Cooper but I seem to remember a family called Cooper who owned the dam on the other side of the poplar dam situated below the hill.
How often that dam with the poplars would dry up!! There were no poplars there when I was a child, just ysterklip and randjiebos. I remember galloping horses across the dry bed. We had 4 horses and a Shetland pony who made me hate all horses. When he was not biting my toes, he was trying to buck me off.
Our big horse Jojo was a gentleman, and I had some wonderful rides on him. We let the horses run wild on the farm and they developed thick winter coats. One died of cirrhosis of the liver when he found some skokiaan brewing behind the labourer’s cottage and kept on drinking it. (An alcoholic horse !? JH) It always took an hour to catch them for a ride. Our staff would help.
Veld fires
Veld fires were always a problem. We kept hessian bags in the garage and would wet them and go out to put out fires as a family. Aged 8 and on, I helped my older siblings and none of us ever got burnt. I think children had more common sense in those days.
Before the 70s, we even had backpacks filled with water with a hand pump attached and these were extremely efficient at putting out grass fires.
I do not know if you still have this issue but thought you might find it interesting how one family dealt with them.
The family and others on the farm
My father was the third generation of factory owners, starting with my great grandfather George Washington Griffiths, who hailed from somewhere near Manchester but was born in Bristol.
My father was an Australian (Thomas McIntyre Griffiths) from Toowoomba, Queensland, who had a factory in Nuffield Street on the other side of town. He made Southern Cross windmills, pumps, farming equipment and lawnmowers. He used the farm as an experimental farm for his products. I grew up with the sound of a windmill pump. There were at least 3 on the farm.
(Paula also sent the following link, if you would like to learn more. JH)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toowoomba_Foundry
Being an Australian, Dad had an innate fear of Prickly pears. He need not have worried as they were not the same species that rendered Queensland farms unsustainable. We spent many a weekend cutting them down and burning them. Sad to think that he could be so ignorant, but he did not know. I love eating Prickly pear fruit now.
When I lived on the farm there were 3 labourers’ cottages, each one had 4 rooms , a verandah and their own water. They grew their own food too. Our family home burnt down in 1985 but it had already been sold to the municipality.
The Skokiaan cottage (where the horse got his bad drinking habit – JH) was built of very old red brick and would have been about 200 meters above the first small dam with the hill on its right. I often wondered who built it. The other two cottages were modern. Sadly, all the staff have passed on now. Maria and April Moketse came from Lesotho, April would milk the cows every morning near my bedroom window. I tried a bit, but my hands were so weak. I was in awe of him. He worked every day. We paid their pensions until they died. Their son SakSak was intelligent and got a job on the mines in a clerical position. Their daughter was Masidiso. Joel was dad’s driver at the factory and handyman around the farm. He would drive the tractor which slept near the orchard. Our dog Bobby, a bit of a border collie, (all our dogs were bitsas) loved the tractor and would sleep near it whenever he could. We had 5 dogs, as city people would abandon them and we kept them. Solomon lived in the red brick cottage. We took him to Natal one year and he said if he was younger, he would leave to live there. He could not believe that a climate could be so warm and the countryside green. The other cottage was used by many staff members.
Other stuff
There is a right of way (used to be – JH) which runs east (or to the right of the main entrance) running up past the houses to the farm up on the hill to the east. This used to be owned by Mr Booyens. I seem to remember that dad and him were not on good terms due to him refusing to use his own gate.
There was an incredible rock on our front garden lawn. It came from a small hill about a km (might be less) away from the home (The hill is to the east/right of the first small dam). A geologist told us that animals had pushed it from the hill to our home garden and rubbed themselves against it for centuries. I wish I had identified it to the developers. The rock was about half a meter high and wide and fairly round. It was a brown rock not the limestone that we found when digging our foundations.
We had a large orchard to the right of the small hill (to the right of the first little dam) I wonder if any trees have survived. I did not see any. The two modern cottages were to the right of the orchard. (Always using right as seen from the main entrance in General Beyers Street)
He leased the property next door, in front of the Church so that he could build a runway and we used this to land our Beechcraft Bonanza ZS COP and stored it in the huge garage. Later he bought a twin engine so he let the lease lapse as the runway would have been too short. I think that most of the runway to the left of the gate about 400 m to the north, is now covered by houses. (It was great for galloping horses).
Dad said that arrow heads had been found on the farm, I wish I had asked more. I found the stone wall remains near the farm (I do not think they were on the farm) interesting and would like to know who built them. One day I hope to find that answer on your website.
If I could have had my way, I would never have sold the farm, but I was one of 6 siblings and we all inherited a share when it was sold. My dream was to turn it into a conservancy!! I was thrilled when one day I found that it was.