Greytown

Greytown is at the hub of a network of roads leading to Colenso, Mooi River, Stanger, Pietermaritzburg and Dundee. The town boasts a wealth of Victorian architecture...and the surrounding scenery ranges from rolling fields of sugarcane to timber plantations and hills covered in aloe and euphorbia.

Driving through the Greytown area, you will see timber plantations. If you are travelling north from Greytown towards Dundee, stop off en route to look at the Bushman paintings on the rocky hillsides.

The principal centre of a richly fertile timber-producing area and part of the KwaZulu Natal Battlefields Route, Greytown has grown rapidly since its formation on the banks of the Umvoti River in the 1850's. Natal's distinctive watttle-tree forests encircle Greytown and the town is a charming example of a British colonial life no longer with us. It is a much frequented holiday destination for tourists interested in history or needing a weekend break.

Greytown was established in the 1850s and named after the governor of the Cape Colony Sir George Edward Grey who later became Premier of New Zealand. A Lutheran church was built in 1854. A church bell which was brought to the town for the Dutch Reformed Church in 1861 to summon the Dutch and English congregations was the centre of a series of theological arguments. It was stolen and buried, only to be found 74 years later upon the construction of some cottages. A strikingly designed Town Hall was opened in 1904. In 1906 following a poll tax and other oppressive conditions placed on the Zulus, the Bambatha Rebellion took place.

The final resting place of Sarie Marais is at Greytown. Sarie was a famous Voortrekker woman who died, aged 37, having her 11th child. She is immortalised by the song of the same name, now indelible part of South African culture.

Second Boer War General and the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, Louis Botha was born on a farm 5 km south from Greytown.