Sun, sails and slow days in Vaal Marina

The history of Vaal Marina is deeply tied to the dramatic transformation of the South African landscape in the early 20th century. Today, it stands as one of the three primary villages on the shoreline of the massive Vaal Dam, alongside Deneysville and Oranjeville. But long before the water arrived, this area was a vast stretch of rolling farmland in the highveld.

When you walk past modern community hubs like Die Werf Vaal Marina or the greens at Harbour Town Vaal Marina, you are moving across lands that were originally part of a prominent old farm called Koppiesfontein.

Key historical milestones

1. 1880

   Koppiesfontein and the First Anglo-Boer War

   During the First Anglo-Boer War, two captured British officers, Captain Elliot and Captain Lambert, were pardoned on condition that they leave the Boer republic immediately. Lost on their journey, they sought refuge at the Koppiesfontein farm, owned by a Boer named Hermanus Stephanus Lombard. Lombard gave them a meal and helped repair their cart.

   Shortly after leaving, the officers were intercepted by Boer commandants who forced them to cross the treacherous Lies Drift at night, resulting in the death of Captain Elliot.

2. 1930

   The passing of Hermanus Lombard

   Hermanus Stephanus Lombard, the farmer who fed the British officers in 1880, passed away on 9 May 1930 at the age of 91, just a few years before the massive dam project would arrive and permanently flood his former lands.

3. 1938

   The Vaal Dam is completed

   The landscape changed forever when the Vaal Dam was constructed and completed in 1938 to supply water to a rapidly growing Johannesburg. As the valley flooded, it swallowed entire farmsteads, homesteads and family cemeteries.

4. A landmark today

   A lonely graveyard on Bultfontein

   On the Free State side of the dam, directly opposite Vaal Marina on the farm Bultfontein, sits a small, lonely graveyard. Among the few graves is a solitary prominent headstone belonging to Hermanus Stephanus Lombard.

The submerged graves of the Vaal Dam: Today, the most haunting historical artifacts of Vaal Marina and its surrounding shores are the "underwater graves". When the dam experiences periods of severe drought and the water levels retreat, the ruins of old stone homesteads and the graves of early settlers physically resurface from the mud. Ruined homesteads and graves are still visible on the remaining dry portions of the Koppiesfontein farm, situated between the town of Vaal Marina and the R54 road to Villiers.