Oudtshoorn

Oudtshoorn
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Coordinates: 33°35′S 22°12′E / 33.583°S 22.200°E / -33.583; 22.200Coordinates: 33°35′S 22°12′E / 33.583°S 22.200°E / -33.583; 22.200
Country	South Africa
Province	Western Cape
District	Eden
Municipality	Oudtshoorn
Established	1857
Area
• Total	37.6 km2 (14.5 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	61,507
• Density	1,600/km2 (4,200/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
• Black African	12.5%
• Coloured	70.9%
• Indian/Asian	0.4%
• White	15.3%
• Other	1.0%
First languages (2011)
• Afrikaans	87.8%
• Xhosa	7.4%
• English	2.6%
• Other	2.2%
Postal code (street)	6625
PO box	6620
Area code	044

Oudtshoorn, the "ostrich capital of the world", is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Two ostrich-feather booms, during 1865-1870 and 1900-1914, truly established the settlement. With approximately 60,000 inhabitants, it is the largest town in the Little Karoo region. The town's economy is primarily reliant on the ostrich farming and tourism industries. Oudtshoorn is home to the world's largest ostrich population, with a number of specialized ostrich breeding farms, such as the Safari Show Farm and the Highgate Ostrich Show Farm.

Bongelethu is a township 10 km east of Oudtshoorn. Derived from Xhosa, its name means "our pride".

The area in which Oudtshoorn is situated was originally inhabited by Bushmen, as evidenced by the many rock paintings that are found in caves throughout the surrounding Swartberg mountains.

The first European explorers to the area were a trading party led by a certain Ensign Shrijver, who were guided there by a Griqua via an ancient elephant trail in January 1689. The expedition reached as far as present-day Aberdeen before turning back and exiting the Klein Karoo valley through Attaquas Kloof on 16 March of the same year. However, it was only a hundred years later that the first farmers started settling in the region.

The first large permanent structure of the Klein Karoo, a church of the Dutch Reformed denomination, was first erected in 1838 on the farm Hartebeestrivier, near the banks of the Olifants and Grobbelaars rivers. The village (and later town) of Oudtshoorn gradually grew around this church, and nine years later, in 1847, Oudtshoorn was founded. It was named after Baron Pieter van Rheede van Oudtshoorn, who was appointed Governor of the Dutch Cape Colony in 1772 but died at sea in January 1773 on his return voyage to the Cape. In 1853, the Dutch Reformed church was officially established as a kerkplaats (church farm). Originally part of the district of George, Oudtshoorn was proclaimed as its own, separate division in 1858. The first British settlers settled the area in 1858. Also in 1858, van Rheede van Oudtshoorn's granddaughter, Ernestina Johanna Geesje, married Egbertus Bergh, a magistrate of George.