Company's Garden

In 1983 J. G. Brand, City Engineer of Cape Town, penned this brief article about Government Avenue, the oldest pedestrian thoroughfare in South Africa. The piece appeared in the 1983 edition of Restorica, the journal of the Simon van der Stel Foundation (today the Heritage Association of South Africa). Thank you to the University of Pretoria (copyright holders) for giving us permission to publish.  

When Simon van der Stel arrived in 1679 he took an immediate interest in the Company's Garden and set about refashioning it. During the re-development he made the central walk broader than it had been previously, thus dividing the Garden into two distinct halves and establishing the Avenue we know today. Before the planting of the English oak, Quercus robur, the Avenue had been planted with several other tree species, including lemon and orange. Oaks were first planted either in van der Stel 's time or shortly thereafter. Although some of the oaks in the Avenue appear ancient it is most unlikely that any date back to his governorship. 

Formerly the oaks planted were all Quercus robur, but because of the seasonal attack of mildew which causes them to deteriorate, it is now policy to use Quercus cerris, the Turkey oak, as a replacement tree. 

Strolling down Government Avenue (The...

The article below, compiled by then City Engineer J.G. Brand, appeared in a 1983 edition of Restorica, the journal of the Simon van der Stel Foundation (today the Heritage Association of South Africa). It provides a fascinating look at the origins and development of the Company's Garden in Cape Town. Thank you to the University of Pretoria (copyright holders) for giving us permission to publish.

Hanging out in the Company's Garden (The Heritage Portal)

The birth of the Company's Garden can be traced back to 1644 when the Dutch ship the "Haarlem" was driven ashore at Bloubergstrand. The crew managed to salvage the cargo and ship's stores. Leaving these under guard, the rest of the crew set out towards the now Cape Town and settled next to a stream of fresh water, the Fresh River. Here, anticipating a long, they sowed some vegetable seeds they had salvaged and were soon able to reap crops which supplemented the food they had been bartering from with local people.

Some six months later the survivors and their cargo were picked up by the Dutch fleet returning from Batavia. On their return to the Netherlands two of the survivors, Leendert Janz and Nicolaas Proot, submitted a report to the Directors of the Dutch East India Company stressing the advantages which could be derived from a refreshment station at the Cape. The report was accepted and Jan van Riebeeck was appointed commander of the...