Travellers in search of the town of Dundee will find it languishing in northern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, approximately equidistant between Durban and Johannesburg. Situated centrally within the Battlefields Tourism region, one of its major draw cards is the ruggedly scenic Biggarsberg conservancy.
There are various peaks that surround the dorp, including Indumeni - or 'the mountains where thunder rolls' as well as Mpati ‘place of good waters’ and Talana ‘the shelf where precious items are kept’. The ‘precious items’ in question here include rich coal deposits, which a certain Peter Smith discovered on his cattle farm around 150 years ago.
Dundee (named for the family’s eponymous home town in Scotland) was founded against this magnificent mountain backdrop in 1864. Smith established the Dundee Coal Company and floated it on the London Stock Exchange in 1899, and the small mining village soon boomed to such an extent that it became known as ‘Coalopolis’. It boasted fine public buildings, splendid churches, graceful homes, a theatre and - thanks to its mining founding fathers – electricity before anywhere else in the province!
Dundee kept a distinct sense of history and to this day, it is the ‘meeting place of seven roads’ where artists and craftspeople produce pottery, woodwork, hand knotted carpets, woven grass baskets and Zulu beadwork. Situated at an altitude of 1247 m, Dundee's climate is temperate with warm summers and moderately cold winters.
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The museum at Talana - Zulu for 'the shelf where precious items are kept' - in Dundee, is built on the site of the first major engagement of...