Pretoria - The Rietvlei Nature Reserve in Pretoria is not just about the wildlife such as Njozi and her cheetah cubs.
The facility has a rich and interesting history – all which is revealed in a glossy coffee-table book named Rietvlei Nature Reserve – The History, the Wildlife and Other Digressions.
When former Pretoria High School for Girls pupil and amateur photographer Kim Marriott, author of the book, first visited Rietvlei Nature Reserve years ago, she was surprised at the abundance of fauna and flaura in this “little gem of a reserve”.
“I used to frequent the reserve to practice my photography. I noticed a number of graves and realised there was not much literature regarding the reserve.”
Marriott, however, not only noticed the graves, she made it her mission to find out more about why they were there and who was buried.
“I decided to do my own research and went to the National Archives in Pretoria. I managed to find quite a bit of information there, as well as old maps and photographs.
“There are about 90 graves on Rietvlei, many that are anonymous and undiscovered. I managed to find many death certificates of people buried on the reserve. Copies of these death certificates are in my book.”
Marriott said the facility had a rich history, which included snippets from the Anglo Boer War.
The book reveals that a South African Air Force member, Frederick Daniel, from the neighbouring military base died when he crashed his plane in the area in 1934.
It is the Erasmus family (under Oupa Swartkoppies) who resided on the land that now forms Rietvlei Nature Reserve from the 1870s. His sons also resided there after his death.
The Coffee Shop on the reserve is one of the original farmhouses. The Erasmus family also lived in the so-called ghost house – the Erasmus Castle in Pretoria’s Erasmuskloof suburb. They had some children who had leprosy and were sent to the Westfort Leper Institution west of Pretoria. The Erasmus family contributed part of their farm, De Onderste Poort 496, which forms part of Onderstepoort Veterinary College as we know it today.
The book also covers the Moodie family, who married into the Erasmus family, and their trek to the then Rhodesia, and a section on Alois Hugo Nellmapius.
The book has more than 473 pages of interesting history, including the images of the original death certificates and marriage certificates (where weddings took place on the farm), a map of the reserve, as well as a breakdown of how the farm Rietvallei 221 was sold and bought throughout history.
“The book includes my wildlife photographs taken in the reserve. There are also lists of what flora and fauna found on the reserve, as well as a section on the vegetation.”
Email Marriott at [email protected] to obtain a copy.
Pretoria News