GARDEN ROUTE DISTRICT NEWS - Like so many others who had to celebrate their special day at home during the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown, George's 209th birthday anniversary passed almost unnoticed last week Thursday, 23 April.
Let's take a moment and acknowledge the history of George - the sixth oldest town in South Africa - nestling at the foot of a mountain in the district of Outeniqualand*.
On 23 April 1811 the Earl of Caledon, Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, issued a proclamation to form a new magisterial district in Outeniqualand. He named the district and the town after the reigning monarch of England, George III. The district then included the present districts of George, Mossel Bay, Knysna, Oudtshoorn and parts of Uniondale, Willowmore and Calitzdorp.
Adrianus Gysbertus van Kervel, the first magistrate, completed the first official building, the gaol, on the site of the present George Tourism Bureau in 1812, followed by the courthouse at the site of the current Magistrate's Court building, in 1813.
The Drostdy, Van Kervel's official office and residence, was completed at the end of 1815. Today it is the George Museum - not only the heart of cultural life in the town, but also a declared provincial heritage site, indicating its significance in the history of the town.
George was granted municipal status on 24 March 1837 in terms of the provisions of the earliest municipal legislation in South Africa, Ordinance 9 of 1836. Source: www.westerncape.gov.za
* Outeniqualand is the strip of land on the Southern Cape coast between the Outeniqua Mountains and the Indian Ocean that falls within the current Garden Route District Municipality and covers the George, Kannaland, Knysna, Langeberg, Mossel Bay, Oudtshoorn and Plettenberg Bay local municipalities.
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