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References

* Bain's Kloof and other Maintain Tales by Winnie Rust, Wellington Museum * The story of the furrow by Ian Bosman, Wellington Museum        * The origin of the Witte River furrow by "BL", Wellington Museum

Bainskloof Pass

Read more about the construction of the pass, and the convicts who provided the labour.

Photographs

The furrow cuts through solid rock, crossing the watershed before flowing into the Kromrivier in Wellington's Bovlei. For more photographs ...

Directions

Follow Church Street, past Wellington Museum out of Wellington and continue along Bainskloof Pass. "Gawie se Water" is about 11 km from Wellington Museum.

Gawie se Water - Bovlei's "stolen water"

View from the "Spookhuis" with Wellington's Bovlei below. The furrow is out of sight to the left of the picture.
In 1880 Gawie Retief completed an ambitious project on behalf of the Bovlei's farming community: to channel water from the Witterivier across the watershed into the Kromrivier to provide irrigation water to the his fellow Bovlei farmers. Today this canal in Bainskloof irrigates more than 600 ha of fertile vineyards and vine nurseries. This "river piracy" allows the Witterivier to flow into both the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.
    The idea of building a canal to augment the Kromrivier's water was first proposed in 1815 by Daniel Johannes Rossouw, also a farmer in the Bovlei. He wanted the government to help him fund the project and submitted his proposal to the authorities, who in turn sent out Captain D'Escury to inspect the site. To D'Escury's surprise, the Bovlei farmers showed no interest in building a furrow that would - they feared - giver Rossouw control over their water source. Needless to say, the canal was never built.
    A few years later, while working on the Bainskloof Pass, Andrew Geddes Bain heard of the idea, and offered to build the furrow at a cost of 400 pounds. The farmers in turn dismissed the offer as being too expensive. Instead, the appointed a fellow Bovlei farmer, Gawie Retief of the farm Kanetfontein, to build the canal for them. Retief completed the furrow in 1860 and almost three times Bain's quote. Nevertheless, the results were so pleasing, that Retief received a bonus for his efforts.
    One cannot underestimate the amount of work that went into building the furrow. Dynamite had not been invented yet. Rocks were shattered with gunpowder, or the more cost effective method of building large fires on top of the rock, and then dousing the heated stone with cold water.