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Wednesday 24 March 2021

Lord Kitchener's legacy: Bela-Bela's very own blockhouse


In 1900 Lord Kitchener (see photograph above) succeeded Lord Roberts as commander-in-chief of the British forces in South Africa during the Second Anglo-Boer War. He soon became the driving force behind infamous actions designed by Roberts to weaken Boer resistance: burning their farms, destroying their livestock and herding their women and children into concentration camps. He also decreed that blockhouses be erected from January 1901 onwards to protect the railway lines in South Africa from marauding Boer guerrilla fighters.

One remains in our town. The stone-built blockhouse (see photograph above) is situated on the vehicle testing grounds in the industrial area. Its purpose was to protect the railway station.

Today it is a national monument and, until recently, regarded as one of the best preserved in the country.

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