Diary – Page 14 – Facts About Durban

31 Jan 2016

Durban Corporation Electrical Bulletin 1941

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: New Articles | 10

Something rather different this time and though not strictly “Facts” about Durban it does relate to life in Durban a startling 75 years ago. It is often spoken about that Durban at one time in its history was one of the few cities in the world that was completely debt free. I think all credit for this must go to what was known as the “Durban Corporation”, the administrative organisation that looked after this city from its earliest days.

Click on pictures to enlarge. Read More

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18 Jan 2016

Point Road

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: Uncategorized | 99

For many Durbanites who are now ex pats this may be of interest as no doubt the older ones may remember when Point Road was not that bad. In the late 60/70s , the bottom end of Point Road at night was always a hive of activity with Smugglers leading the way as an off beat entertainment centre. If you were young and daring and nothing on, a trip down that way would surely have some entertainment value; strip shows, music, dancing, the occasional fight (known as a raut in the slang used then ) taken out into to the street and a racial mix defying the laws of the day. Read More

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2 Jan 2016

What happened in Durban 50 years ago 1966

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: Uncategorized | 30

What happened in Durban 50 years ago?

Continuing with my late father-in-law, Mr Archie Black’s newspaper scrapbooks, here is what he pasted up for 1966. Mr Black posted some headlines which were international news so I will include some of them for interest. My comments in italics. Mr Black’s scrap books ended at 1975 so there is no scrapbook for 1976. Read More

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14 Dec 2015

The New Umgeni Interchange.

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: New Articles | 3

For those Durbanites now living in other parts of the world and who left before this project was completed you may wonder what the finished product looks like. Also, the older Durbanites who knew this area from the 60/70s will admire this engineering feat. It took a long time coming but knowing the intersections, it was badly needed.

Click on picture to enlarge. Read More

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7 Dec 2015

Old Durban Photos

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: Pictures | 90

I was sent these pictures of Durban taken probably in the 1920s / 1930s. Click on the pictures to enlarge. This postcard shows the view of Durban looking across the Bay towards the Bluff. Read More

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18 Nov 2015

KPCC

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: New Articles | 1

Cycling stalwart Geoff Waters got in touch a while ago to say that he had just put the finishing touches to a short history of the Mayville-Kings Park Cycling Club and asked if we would be interested in hosting it on the site.

The project was begun by Bob Turk and continued by Dave Huckett while Geoff was responsible for the editing, footnotes and adding a few items. Originally designed to be A4 in size, the booklet was a bit large for our web server so I reduced it, redid the layout and here, finally, it is.

Kings Park Cycling Club members racing up the hills in the early 1950s.

Right-click and select ‘Save link as’ to save the KPCC history to your computer. (3Mb PDF)

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14 Nov 2015

Ocean Terminal

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: Image, New Articles | 7

A while ago I received an email from Marek Warunkiewicz which told the story of his father Janusz Warunkiewicz who designed the Ocean Terminal (always fondly known in our family as the White Elephant) on T Jetty and much of the artwork which decorated it including a fibreglass galleon which I can clearly remember.

My first email exchange with Marek took place in early 2014 when Janusz was 104 years of age and living on his own in Montreal. He passed away a month short of his 105th birthday but FAD is honoured to be able to help keep his memory alive with a bit about his life and a splendid gallery of pictures.

Janusz Warunkiewicz February 17, 1910 - January 16, 2015. Pictured at home in Montreal shortly after his 104th birthday. — Janusz Warunkiewicz
February 17, 1910 – January 16, 2015. Pictured at home in Montreal shortly after his 104th birthday.

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11 Nov 2015

Info Requests

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: InfoRequests, Uncategorized | 20

In the past while I’ve received a number of requests for information and decided to collect them all in one place.

Tony Ward wrote:

Dear Allan, I’m emailing to inquire whether you (or anyone else who views ‘Facts About Durban’ has got a copy, or a better digital picture of an old Artco postcard of Durban’s Louis Botha Airport that depicts an SAA Viscount. I have a very poor quality digital picture, and would love to see a better one. This is what I have. I have been looking for ages for a better copy, but it seems to be a pretty rare postcard.

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18 Oct 2015

FAD back in print

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: Housekeeping | 0

Yay!! Facts About Durban is available again at only AUD22.00 per copy plus postage from on-demand printer Lulu.com.

It took a while but I finally got my A into G and uploaded the book’s files to Lulu. Ordering is as simple as going to my page on Lulu and adding one copy or 500 to the shopping cart. Lulu will then print and bind the copies you ordered and mail them to you. Read More

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28 Aug 2015

Save the stables

by Gerald Buttigieg | posted in: InfoRequests | 11

We have had quite a few queries in recent days about the history of the Newmarket Stables in Durban which are apparently threatened with closure. If anyone has old photos or knows anything about the historic background it might help to confirm the stables’ status as a Durban landmark worth saving. Please leave a comment below or message me via the Contact page if you can help.

Suzor’s Bend

And here’s a puzzle. I have received a query from Arthur Gammage about Suzor’s Corner which is a bend in the old main road just outside Durban. I was sure I had had correspondence with regard to the origins of the name but can’t find anything on this site or in my email archives. Arthur wrote:

On the old highway from Durban to Pinetown, the R103, just on the west side of the bridge over the N2 freeway, is an S-curve known locally as Suzor’s Bend. All I can find on the web is an article by Jock Leyden about a motorcycle race, which he watched from this place. The relevant text is as follows.

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