Stories Archive

From the time the New Harbour opened in 1951 to about 1970, it was the base for a perlemoen boom. Divers flocked to Hermanus, with primitive apparatus they harvested large numbers of perlemoen and sold these to one of the six canning factories that opened in response to a huge […]

Hermanus has two harbours, neither of them with a proper name. They are just “The Old Harbour” near the town centre and “The New Harbour” some kilometres to the west. The Old Harbour is very much better known than the New Harbour, as it has a Museum devoted to its […]

Fire has been an integral part of the Overstrand and Hermanus for millions of years. The first fires happened for purely natural reasons, probably most often started by lightning strikes. The plant ancestors of our fynbos adapted to these periodic fires, probably over hundreds of thousands of years. Then, species […]

Magdalena Jurina “Swallow” Neethling Born:  28 May 1877                         Died:  7 Aug 1953  1895 at age of 17 began teaching at Kwartelfontein Caledon district. In 1896 during a holiday in Hermanuspietersfontein  she was approached by the then school principal who asked her and convinced her to come and teach in HPF. […]