29
Oct
2014

Brandfort was established on the farm Keerom in the Free State in 1866. The reason for the establishment of the town was the need for a church which an elder, Jacobus van Zijl built.

The then Free State President JH Brand visited the town and it was decided to name the town in President Brand’s honour.

The town was officially proclaimed a town in 1874. The region and town is a farming community with maize being the primary source of economic sustainability followed by cattle and sheep farming.

Brandfort was embroiled in the Anglo Boer war and evidence of this lies on the outskirts of the town with some unusual characteristics, there was a Boer white concentration camp and a separate camp which held black detainees during the war.

Africa’s first airplane was built in Brandfort and it is housed in a museum in the town. A larger part of the Brandfort and surrounding communities are employed at the Goldfields mines which are a major economic force in the region.

Attractions in and around Brandfort are Free State Botanical Gardens, Palmietfontein Dam (which is an ideal angling venue), quad biking trails, De Aap Farm (which belonged to former First President of The South African Republic CR Swart), Dwyersdorp Concentration Camp, Vice-Admiral Weston Home (where Africa’s first plane was built) and the Voortrekker Memorial Wall.

Some of the game farms in Brandfort have legal hunts of animals during the culling seasons.

Brandfort has an unusual attraction for the avid botanists; visit the Cyferfontein Floral Farm which is renowned for Inca Lilies and Michaelmas daisies which can be viewed and bought on the farm by appointment only.

Visit the Waterkloof Prickly Pear Farm in the Middekaalspruit where prickly pears are ripe during January to March.

Take a tour of property in towns like Brandfort via the MyRoof website.

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