Drought at Beaufort West and across the Great Karoo
about 1822–1823 · regional · Beaufort West
An early drought in the young town, named in the municipal record. These are BEAUFORT WEST's records, about 91 km from the centre of the ground this project maps, and the article makes no statement about Klaarstroom or the Koup farms. What makes them worth having is that they are the same rainfall regime and the nearest place where somebody wrote the weather down year by year. Read as regional context, not as a record of what fell on these farms. [SRC-262] | [16 Sep 2026] TWO MORE WITNESSES, AND ONE OF THEM COUNTS. George Thompson rode through it in June and July 1823 (SRC-635). At Beaufort he was told no rain had fallen for three years; between the town and the Gamka there was not a blade of grass; on the Dwyka his host Botha had lost 1,100 sheep and many cattle within the last fourteen months, which puts its grip from about May 1822, and many of the neighbouring farmers had suffered equally; west of the Dwyka the rivers to the Buffels were dry channels and cattle skeletons lay along the road, until rain had fallen near the Bokkeveld mountains. Springbok were migrating out of the desert into the colony in the Nieuwveld at the end of June. THE BEAUFORT OPGAAFROL taken 3 February to 3 March 1824 (SRC-634, film 008145115 image 5-6) prints the whole district against the roll of 1822: cattle 9,995 to 7,646 (down 2,349, about 23%), goats 36,745 to 31,667 (down 5,078), sheep 245,253 to 231,270 (down 13,983), horses 1,051 to 1,005, trek oxen 5,525 to 5,441; but wheat harvested ROSE, 1,422 7/8 to 1,711 1/4 mud, most likely from irrigated land on the rivers (the Swartberg ward alone reaped 800). The district figure includes the three Couph wards; which wards lost most would need the 1822 roll's own ward summary (film 008145114). Thompson says nothing of the southern Koup, where he did not travel. A roll-to-roll fall in stock is also partly what farmers chose to declare. [TO VERIFY by ward]
Ground it happened on
Sources
- Wessel Visser, "Between drought and deluge: A history of water provision to Beaufort West, ca. 1858-1955", pp. 1-21 pp. 1-21; supplied as the PDF 31-61-1-SM.pdf
- George Thompson, Travels and Adventures in Southern Africa, 2 vols (London: Henry Colburn, 1827) - Jakhal's-Fonteyn on the Dwyka, 4 July 1823 Vol. I, printed pages 274-275 (running head DWYKA RIVER) for the entry of 4 July 1823; p. 275-276 the Cango Caves Botha of 1822; p. 282 the return from Jakhals-Fonteyn; vol. I p. 264-265 the springbok migration in the Nieuwveld, June 1823; vol. I p. 272 Beaufort village; vol. I p. 273 the commando (EVT-000327); vol. II pp. 118-121 a wedding party's 'vrolykheid', 1822; vol. II pp. 152-158 a quoted account of land grants and 'request' places; vol. II pp. 208-209 farm taxes in Uitenhage; vol. II p. 383 De Clercq and the lion (LEAD-0351)
- Beaufort opgaafrol taken 3 February to 3 March 1824 (volume J10, catalogued as 1823) - read in full for Botha households: none heads a large family, none on the Dwyka Film # 008145115, images 5 to 73 of 620 (volume J10; images 74-75 are the closing target and END card). Images 5-6 and 72-73 are the district summaries; household pages alternate with their facing leaves.