The Natal interior.

Abstract

• Opsomming: Die Natalse Binneland, tradisioneel 'n landelike streek, het volgehoue groei, ook op stedelike gebied, ondervind. Dit het meegebring dat die Natalse landskap van die verlede vinniger verander het as in die meeste ander dele van Suid-Afrika. Ten spyte van hierdie veranderinge bied die streek steeds 'n interessante en soms indrukwekkende natuurlandskap aan die belangstellende. Die eerste Blanke inwoners van die Natalse Binneland het uit die Kaapkolonie gekom en met hulle 'n eie kulturele karakter en tradisie van veeboerdery saamgebring. Die oorwegende karakter van die bevolking het egter Brits geword soos weerspieël deur die argitektuur wat hoofsaaklik die algemene strominge in Engeland nagevolg het. Dorpe is aanvanklik aangelê om in die administratiewe en ekonomiese behoeftes van die landelike gemeenskap te voorsien, maar die ontginning van steenkool in hierdie streek het die patroon verander deurdat verskeie selfstandige steenkoolgemeenskappe ontstaan het.

• Summary: The Natal Interior, a pastoral region since the nineteenth century, has throughout its history experienced rural and urban growth. The landscape of the past is thus being more rapidly changed in Natal than in most parts of South Africa. However, the region still provides a most interesting, and often surprising, landscape. It was the Cape Colonists who initiated the rural settlement with their stock-farming and cultural ideas, but the overall character of the settlement eventually became British, and building styles as a rule followed the general trends in England. In time the pattern of the towns established to administer and act as commercial centres for the surrounding rural areas was changed when the Natal coalfields began to emerge. These caused the development of many self-contained, coalmining communities.