History category
Stories
Local stories and oral history.
Listings
17 listed01 · Deep time — Karoo fossil tracks and regional Stone Age evidence
Public heritage notes invite visitors to follow fossilised tracks in the rock around the Camdeboo.
02 · Before 1652 — Inqua and Camdeboo country
This district sits in the Camdeboo, long occupied by Khoekhoe groups including the Inqua.
03 · January 1689 — VOC barter with the Inqua
Ensign Isaq Schrijver (often written Shriver in later local histories), sent from the Cape by Governor Simon van der Stel, met Inqua under Heykon about 30 km north-west of today’s town, in the lee of the Onder-Sneeuberg, to barter for sheep and cattle.
04 · c. 1770 — Farmers on the Camdeboo plains
The Aberdeen heritage archive, citing SANParks, records white farmers settling the Camdeboo plains and the Sneeuberg around 1770, before Gordon’s 1777 panorama and long before the church town.
06 · 1817 — Brakkefontein title under Lord Charles Somerset
Karoo Heartland records that the original title deeds for the land under the later town were signed by the British governor, Lord Charles Somerset, in 1817.
10 · 1856–1857 — Church town laid out; plots sold
A small church was built and erven were surveyed.
19 · 1899–1902 — South African War in the district
Karoo Heartland records sharp division in town, and that 139 residents joined the Boer forces while still British subjects of the Cape Colony.
20 · 1900 — Aberdeen Afrikaanse Handelshuis
A local history cited by the Free State study dates an Afrikaanse Handelshuis to 1900, with 190 people putting in £10,000 of start-up capital.
21 · 5 Mar–6 Jul 1901 — Scheepers attacks the town and the station
The Aberdeen war-history page dates Commandant Gideon Scheepers’ attack on the town to 5 March 1901, with British and local colonial defenders.
24 · 1904 — The Aberdeen Post / Pos
A weekly newspaper, The Aberdeen Post / Pos, started in 1904.
27 · 1921 — Telephone exchange and wool growers
The centenary record, via the Free State study, dates a telephone exchange to 1921: 13 subscribers and one public phone.
32 · 1960 — Census of a sparse district
Cook’s count, quoted by the Free State study, put the 1960 district at 8,913 people (urban 4,647) and 1.3 people per square kilometre, the sparsest part of the Eastern Cape Karoo in that survey.
36 · 2001 — Census main places
The Free State study’s 2001 census total for Aberdeen is 7,083, split across Aberdeen, Lotusville and Thembalesizwe.
37 · 2010 — Heritage archive and tourism initiative
In 2010 residents from Aberdeen, Lotusville and Thembalesizwe launched an Aberdeen Heritage Archive and Tourism initiative.
38 · 2011 — Census main place
Census 2011 counted 7,162 people on about 15.4 km².
40 · 2023–2024 — Camdeboo rename proposed, then refused
In 2023 a change from Aberdeen to Camdeboo was proposed.
41 · 6 Feb 2026 — Official name Xamdeboo gazetted
Government Gazette No.