Ferreira's Camp

Ferreirasdorp
Ferreirasdorp Show map of Gauteng Ferreirasdorp Show map of South Africa Ferreirasdorp Show map of Africa  Ferreirasdorp shown within Gauteng
Location within Greater Johannesburg  Ferreirasdorp
Coordinates: 26°12′29″S 28°01′59″E / 26.208°S 28.033°E / -26.208; 28.033Coordinates: 26°12′29″S 28°01′59″E / 26.208°S 28.033°E / -26.208; 28.033
Country	South Africa
Province	Gauteng
Municipality	City of Johannesburg
Main Place	Johannesburg
Established	1886
Area
• Total	0.42 km2 (0.16 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	625
• Density	1,500/km2 (3,900/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
• Black African	73.6%
• Coloured	3.4%
• Indian/Asian	20.5%
• White	2.2%
• Other	0.3%
First languages (2011)
• English	25.0%
• Zulu	17.1%
• Tswana	12.3%
• Northern Sotho	10.2%
• Other	35.4%
Postal code (street)	2001
PO box	2048

Ferreirasdorp (or Ferreirastown) is an inner-city suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa located in Region F.

First known as Ferreira's Camp (Afrikaans: Ferreiraskamp) and later Ferreira's Township, it is the oldest part of Johannesburg. Sometimes referred to as the "cradle of Johannesburg", it is where the first gold diggings started, and where the first diggers initially settled. The city grew around the mining camp in the Ferreirasdorp area, and Johannesburg’s Main Street developed from a rough track where the present Albert Street led off towards Ferreira’s Camp.

The suburb is named after Colonel Ignatius Ferreira, leader of the original group of diggers who settled in this area in 1886.

The suburb's origins lie in the Turffontein farm set up by Colonel Ignatius Ferreira, a Boer adventurer from Cape Colony. Ferreira had acquired a dozen claims in the vicinity and opened the reef in a cutting. The ore from both sides had a high gold content. The first tent on the site was erected in 1886, two months before gold digging started in earnest.

In 1886 Hans Sauer, who combined a medical practice with prospecting on Cecil Rhodes’s behalf, was guided from Ferreira’s Camp to the main group of gold reefs by a son of the widow Petronella Oosthuizen, the owner of a farm at Langlaagte, on which the main gold reefs had first been discovered.

Following reports of new gold finds in the Witwatersrand, Rhodes and Rudd set off for Ferreira's camp. Already at the time of Rhodes' visit, a little crowd of diggers were at work, and in the week that had passed since Sauer had been away, an Englishwoman had run up a reed and mud building called Walker's Hotel.

Within a fortnight of Rhodes' arrival in July 1886, Ferreira's camp was crowded with tents and wagons from across southern Africa. The tent town eventually became known as Ferreira’s Camp. In July, the Diamond Fields Advertiser was already reporting that the population of Ferreira's Town was 300 persons.