Grabouw
| Grabouw | |
|---|---|
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 Grabouw
Grabouw
Grabouw
Grabouw shown within Western Cape
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| Coordinates: 34°09′S 19°01′E / 34.150°S 19.017°ECoordinates: 34°09′S 19°01′E / 34.150°S 19.017°E | |
| Country | South Africa |
| Province | Western Cape |
| District | Overberg |
| Municipality | Theewaterskloof |
| Established | 1856 |
| Area | |
| • Total | 6.65 km2 (2.57 sq mi) |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Total | 30,337 |
| • Density | 4,600/km2 (12,000/sq mi) |
| Racial makeup (2011) | |
| • Black African | 38.5% |
| • Coloured | 55.8% |
| • Indian/Asian | 0.2% |
| • White | 4.6% |
| • Other | 0.9% |
| First languages (2011) | |
| • Afrikaans | 61.8% |
| • Xhosa | 28.5% |
| • Sotho | 5.0% |
| • English | 2.5% |
| • Other | 2.2% |
| Postal code (street) | 7160 |
| PO box | 7160 |
| Area code | 021 |
Grabouw is a mid-sized town located in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
Grabouw is located some 65 km south-east of Cape Town, over Sir Lowry's Pass from Somerset West, along the N2 highway. The town is the commercial centre for the vast Elgin Valley, the largest single export fruit producing area in Southern Africa, which extends between the Hottentots-Holland, Kogelberg, Groenland, and Houwhoek Mountains.
The town's population at the 2001 census was listed as 21,593.
The original inhabitants of the area were the Khoikhoi pastoralists and the San hunter gatherers. The indigenous people of the region, the Chainouqua Khoi, inhabited a large area on both sides of the Hottentots Holland Mountains. They traded with early European settlers, but were later dispossessed from their lands by the Dutch colonists, who began to move into the area in the late 1600s and took the Chainouqua land for farming.
The original Chairouqua names for the region's different land-forms are unfortunately not known. However a wide range of different names sprung up in colonial times. The town's location was first a stopping point for wagons on the route eastwards from Cape Town, along the route which the N2 highway now follows. The area was known at the time as "Koffiekraal". Another early colonial name for the area was "Groenland" ("Greenland" in Dutch) - a name given to various parts of the region by early colonists, but which now applies only to the mountainous area to the north. The town itself was created on the farm "Grietjiesgat", bought in 1856 by Wilhelm Langschmidt, a painter from Cape Town, who started the community around his wife's little trading store. Langschmidt named the village after the German town Grabow where he was born. It was initially spelt as "Grabau".
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Wikipedia