Page 51 - KBHA BULLETIN 6

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The original fishermen’s cottages on erf 90005 took the form of a single row-building, one

section with a pitched thatched roof and the remainder with flat-roofs. (Fig. 2.12). Later, the
first one lost its thatch which was replaced with a shallow-pitch corrugated iron roof. (Fig.

2.13). They were eventually integrated into the long "stores" structure shown on harbour
plans. Around 1906 a fish factory and then additional wood and iron sheds replaced the

previous activities that had taken place around a small whitewashed building and in the open
yard that fronted the cottages. (Fig. 2.14).

By 1933 the refrigeration plant and the temporary structures associated with linking the
railway to the breakwater, and the cottages had all gone. All that remained was the retaining

wall alongside the road leading into the harbour. The site remained undeveloped thereafter.

(Fig. 2.15).

In 1877 erven 90008 & 90009, being portions of land adjacent to the Point, were
expropriated by the Colonial Government for the extension of the Simon’s Town Railway

line. The railway (Cape Gauge), which was completed in 1890, effectively severed the bay
and Point from the growing community of Kalk Bay. The railway was built on a viaduct over

the beach, diminishing the area that fishermen had available for beaching their vessels, which

had to be hoisted above the intertidal zone on specially built gantries (1906). In 1913 a spur
railway line was built from the Simon’s Town line, extending across Kalk Bay point (erf

90007), for the purposes of building and servicing the harbour breakwater. Remnants of this
line are still visible on the breakwater, but all traces of it have been removed from the Point.

It was during this time that we believe significant changes were made to the local landscape

with the construction of a viaduct to carry the line to the breakwater, a temporary siding, the

works yard and sheds. An immense amount of sand had already been removed for boats’
ballast, and now land was reclaimed to make the fish quay of Kalk Bay harbour. The fill, in

all likelihood, included sand and rubble from the Point area. The dunes along the railway
th
track that appear in 19 century photographs have also been levelled by about 1900.

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