Alois Hugo Nellmapius

Alois Hugo Nellmapius 5 May 1847 - 27 July 1893, was a South African businessman, industrialist and pioneer conservationist.

Born in Bielitz Poland on the 5th May 1847. His given name was Alois Hugo Neumann the son of Albert and Charlotte Neumann, but upon coming to South African changed his last name for reasons unknown. He trained as an engineer in the Netherlands and arrived in South Africa on board the ship Nathan in 1873 - one of his fellow passengers was John X. Merriman, later Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. This was the year that gold was first found in the ZAR. He was successful at gold mining near Pilgrim's Rest in the Eastern Transvaal, and managed to obtain the first transport concession to Delagoa Bay in 1875. He constructed what is now known as the Nellmapius Road, from Mac-Mac and the goldfields, crossing the Crocodile River at Nellmapius Drift near Hectorspruit to Matalha Poort in Mozambique. For these services he was granted 4 farms. Nellmapius made and lost several fortunes in his lifetime and was a close friend of Paul Kruger,there is a plaque in the National Kruger Park commemorating this very thing. He was the first digger on the Transvaal goldfields to make use of dynamite.

Nellmapius served in the Sekhukhune Wars and the Mapoch campaign. He established Irene Estate (named after his daughter) near Pretoria and bought a number of farms on the Hennops River. He employed horticulturists Richard Wills Adlam, who had been the Curator of the Pietermaritzburg Botanical Garden, and his successor, Hans Fuchs. Under their management and with a temperate climate, ample water and fertile soil, they transformed the land into an extensive flower, fruit and vegetable garden of world renown. Flora Shaw of "The Times" of London, visited the Irene Estate in 1892 and was astounded at the scale of the farm and gardens: "With the exception of cherries, gooseberries and currants, all European fruits flourish well. Throughout the estate the water courses, which divided the fields, were bordered by hedges of quince, pear, apple, plum and peach...acres of roses, violets and ornamental plants surrounded the house..."

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