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The Barnard family, who trekked here in the late 1800's and surveyed the
property on the 15th November 1892, originally owned the farm. Several
skirmishes took place on the farm and those adjacent to it during the 2nd
Anglo/Boer war. Numerous artefacts have been found as evidence of this. The
property was originally leased to share croppers, who tilled the land with
donkey drawn implements and cultivated summer maize and winter wheat. They
subsidised their income by trapping buck and baboons to sell in the towns.
The Conroy family purchased the farm on the 4th May 1928. At this time the only
improvements were a three-roomed stone and mud homestead, which the family
occupied until 1945. Parts of the building are still used today as a workshop.
On occupation by the Conroy's, the property was fenced to contain a small herd
of Africander cattle. Subsequently, a citrus nursery was established and 1200
Valencia orange trees were planted. The produce was sold locally.
In 1938 an
export market to the United Kingdom was established; the fruit was delivered to
Marikana Station by ox wagon for onward delivery to Cape Town export harbour.
The wheel hubs from that wagon can be seen in the aloe garden outside the lodge.
The exports halted in 1939 when Mr Conroy enlisted to fight in the 2nd World
War. He returned safely at the age of 58, ending his services in Italy with the
Royal Durban Light Infantry, 6th Division, as a Vickers Machine Gunnery
Sergeant.
The present owner has been involved with the farm since the age of five. After a
business career linked to agriculture, he returned to his roots on retiring in
1985. Still actively farming in his 80's, his family is descended from some of
the original Magaliesberg settler families of the late 1800's.
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