Information on Machadodorp, Mpumalanga, South Africa

Conference Venues South Africa brings you information on Machadodorp situated in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa including information on Facilities and Recreation, Climate, Founding, History Suburbs, Town Planning and Geography.

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Machadodorp History

The town grew around a station originally named Geluk, after the sheep farm it was built on, but in 1894, the name was changed to honour Major Joachim Machado, an engineer who had surveyed the land for the proposed Pretoria-Delagoa Bay railway line.

The settlement became a capital for a few months from 5 June 1900 but was only declared a municipal town in 1904. This quirk in history happened during the Second Boer War when the Transvaal Volksraad made the town their temporary seat, using railway carriages as their offices and munt after they had to evacuate Pretoria in the face of a British invasion.

The station closed in 2002, but thanks to a quick-thinking station master who had decades earlier rescued a consignment of dying trout by dumping the fish in the Elands River, the town continued to play a large part in Mpumlanga's subsequent trout tourism industry.

In the 21st century, Machadodorp's residents either work for the industries feeding a chrome smelter, or the logging industries based on the pine plantations surrounding the town.

Towns and Suburbs of the Mpumalanga province of South Africa

Badplaas , Belfast , Dullstroom , eMakhazeni , eMalahleni , eNtokozweni , Ermelo , Graskop , Groblersdal , Hazyview , Komatipoort , Lydenburg , Machadodorp , Malelane , Mbombela, Middelburg , Nelspruit , Ohrigstad , Piet Retief , Pilgrim's Rest , Sabie , Sabi Sands , Secunda , Skukuza , Schoemanskloof , Standerton , Stoffberg , White River , Villiers , Witbank