R

ecently I was asked to give a talk

on the human impact on nature
at Melville Koppies. I spent several
hours sitting on the koppies thinking
about this and came to the conclusion that
our impact at Melville Koppies is minimal
in fact the reverse is happening. Nature
has had an impact on humans at Melville
Koppies. Those far mens fears have not
materialized here.
Stone Age humans a few tools
The far men who walked the Earth millions
of years ago left no footprint at Melville
Koppies except for a few tools. There were
no dolomite caves at Melville Koppies for
them to fall into and become fossilised in
brecchia, like the caves at Sterkfontein,
a mere 35 km away as the crow flies.
Archaeologists have occasionally found
early Stone Age tools such as Olduwan
cores dating from 2.7 million years ago
(mya) to 1.5 mya and Acheulian hand axes
and cleavers (1.5 mya to 250 000 mya) left
by late australopithecines and habilines.
However, Middle Stone Age tools
(250 000 to 22 000 years ago) of
anatomically modern humans have been
found on Melville Koppies. These are
prepared cores with flakes of various sizes
and shapes napped off them. The cores
may have been made from the quartzite
and quartz rocks at Melville Koppies. Some
of the flakes were attached to shafts of
wood, for use as spears. Man the hunter
was emerging. Their impact on the game
at Melville Koppies was infinitesimal. Their
diet consisted mostly of edible plants
which was entirely sustainable as they were
nomadic and their numbers were few.
Late Stone Age human impact on the
environment at Melville Koppies was also
minimal. Microlithic flakes dating from
22 000 to 2 000 years ago have been
found. These tiny arrow-shaped flakes
of quartz were attached to arrows. The
San or Bushmen, late Stone Age people,
were proficient hunters but they did not
decimate the game. As Bosman* wrote of
the stone implements, And these things
were made in the morning of the Stone
Age, in the evening of the Stone Age, too,
some of them In these stone implements
there is a diuturnity, a slow perpetuity.
A timeless permanence which the rust
cannot eat into.
The Iron Age
By 1300, late Iron Age humans began
moving into Melville Koppies from the
Magaliesberg area. There was water, limited
grazing for cattle, valleys with deeper soils
for crops, materials for building and of
course, iron ore in the rocks. Humans now
started to make an impact on Melville
Koppies. Trees were cut down to build
huts. Trees were also used for fuel and to
make charcoal for the hungry furnaces and
forges of the iron makers. It is estimated
that one smelting needed charcoal
from two Acacia caffra trees. Rocks were
gathered for low stone walls around each
hut and to enclose the cattle kraals in the
centre of homesteads.
What evidence remains of this period? Two
furnaces were excavated in the mid 1960s.
Pottery sherds were found near the furn-
ace sites. Fires sweeping through Melville
Koppies have exposed traces of stone
walling on the northern slopes. Bush and
silt have hidden everything else of this age
on the koppies, save what has been exca-
vated, preserved or reconstructed around
the Lecture Hut area.
Turning point wagon wheels
The mated snakes of turning wheels app-
eared in the 1830s. They heralded a change
in technology that would increasingly
exact more from the frightened earth.
Voortrekkers or landverhuisers moved
into the area with wagons, guns and
later ploughs. Demographics and politics
changed. And then, north-west of Melville
The nature of man
A history of Melville Koppies
by Wendy Carstens , Melville Koppies guide and Chairman of the volunteer Melville
Koppies Management Committee
ABOVE: Theresa and Gabriel Gibbon de-stressing on
Melville Koppies.
RIGHT: Final year University of the Witwatersrand BSc students
collecting data for their course on Ecological Communities and
Biodiversity Conservation with Prof. Ed Witkowski at Melville
Koppies. Photos: Wendy Carstens.
Wheels within Wheels
When the first wheels flattened the grass and in the sand
Drew two straight lines, the men who saw the spoor
Being hunters gazed and could not understand:
Round feet whose prints were without curvature.
We see the mammoth in his footmarks and
Recall the tiger from the slots he makes
On slime and soil. But whereby is it planned
That round hooves leave straight trails like mated snakes
Frightening the earth? And, lo, a million years
Of turning wheels enlarge those far mens fears.
Herman Charles Bosman
Koppies at present-day Kloofendal Nature
Reserve, the Struben brothers discovered
the gold of the Confidence Reef in the
quartzite ridges.
Gold diggings the Geldenhuys period
The Geldenhuys family bought the farm
Braamfontein to prospect for gold in
the 1880s. They were convinced that its
quartzite ridges (now Melville Koppies)
would make them rich. Fortunately for us,
they did not find payable gold and Melville
Koppies was not turned into a mine dump.
The two bothers, Louw and Frans, did not
make much of an impact on Melville Koppies
in their search for gold. They dug an adit
and made some blast holes, two of which
have been found in a fairly inaccessible spot
close to the adit.
VELD&FLORA | JUNE 2012 76 JUNE 2012 | VELD&FLORA 77
Their farming activities were further north where the soil is deep
and rich. The soils on the quartzite ridges of Melville Koppies are
thin and acidic; the soils in the shale valleys are slightly deeper,
but not good enough to plough for crops and so destroy the
wealth of indigenous geophytic plants. The grasses are mostly
unpalatable so cattle did not venture too high up the slopes. This
was all good news for minimizing human impact on the natural
vegetation of the koppies.
A close shave the 1930s and 1940s
Louw Geldenhuyss death in 1925 reduced the area that could
have been part of Melville Koppies, as the family sold off his
share of the farm except for a small 10 ha piece once known
as the Louw Geldenhuys View Site. This may have been for
sentimental reasons as Louw and his wife Emmarentia used
to sit here and watch the sunrise and sunset. The View Site
was incorporated into Melville Koppies in 1992 as Melville
Koppies East.
When Frans Geldenhuys died, the Johannesburg Council for
Natural History bought his land from the family in the 1940s for the
Johannesburg Botanical Gardens and West Park Cemetery. Frans,
his wife Judith, and various family members are buried at West Park
Cemetery. By chance, Herman Charles Bosmans grave is close by.
Franss land included what is now Melville Koppies Central. The
human impact on this section could have wiped out the natural
heritage as there were plans to build UNISA here. A site for an
old-age home was debated, and while heated discussions raged
about its use, the koppies became further degraded by dumping,
quarrying, invasive alien vegetation growth, the removal of plants
and rocks and the effects of vagrancy.
Turn around Nature Reserve and Heritage Site
Melville Koppies was declared a Nature Reserve in 1959. This
was an early victory for environmentalists who recognised the
value of our indigenous vegetation and wished to preserve it for
the future.
Ironically, Iron Age humans modifications of the environment
led to its preservation from further impact by modern humans.
After archaeologist Revil Masons discovery of the 500 year-old
Iron Age furnace, Melville Koppies Central was made a National
Monument in 1968. The status of National Monument was
changed to Heritage Site in 2000 as this is a more inclusive term
for aspects of past cultures.
Revil Masons archaeological dig at The Cave, formed by an
overhang of quartzite rocks on Melville Koppies West, revealed
traces of some of the game that once roamed the Koppies, Iron
Age pottery sherds and the link-shaft of
a Bushman arrow. The excavations at The
Cave led to it becoming a Heritage Site as
well. The Cave is framed by a magnificent
Rock-breaking Fig (Ficus ingens) that has
withstood the impact of the many people,
past and present, who have used the
shelter of The Cave.
The past 53 years natures impact
In 1959, the proclaimed Nature Reserve was
fenced and a tentative start was made on
reversing the degradation of human impact.
This has been a gradual process, fuelled
by the optimism, dreams, resources and
commitment of many volunteers. Volunteers
have been closely associated with Melville
Koppies since 1959. Their passionate
dedication has ensured that Melville Koppies
has remained an unspoilt indigenous haven
in the middle of Johannesburg. The aim of
management has always been to conserve
and preserve the environment for present
and future generations and to promote
environmental education, research and
sustainable recreation.
The Environmental Management Con-
servation Plan promotes working with
nature and avoiding unnecessary deve-
lopment. Most paths are natural. Facilities
are rudimentary but adequate. There are
three septic tank toilets, municipal piped
water, but no electricity. Funding is used
for maintenance, most of which is spent
on eradicating alien vegetation. Signage
is confined to the archaeological site and
a few other strategic points. Development
of facilities has been avoided as this would
impact on nature and jar the senses.
An ideal natural environment should
have a positive impact on people, but
basic rules of behaviour in a reserve need
to be upheld. These are given at the start
of a tour: Dont run older folk wish they
still could; Stay on the paths because there
are snakes shrieks from the girls in pink
and Really Wow! from the boys; Walk in
single file behind the guide. The focus is
on nature, so this is not a venue for picnics,
braais, events and noisy functions.
The impact of nature on people depends
on their age and interests and the section
of Melville Koppies they walk on.
Melville Koppies West is 100 ha of public
open space. Hundreds of people from the
African Independent Churches worship
here because they feel close to God. The
environment has a very positive effect
on the worshippers. On Sundays the hills
are alive with the sound of singing and
drumbeats. The number of worshippers
could impact severely on the environment
but for the Rules of Conduct, drawn up
by the Melville Koppies Management
Committee and the Association of African
Independent Churches.
Melville Koppies East is on the doorstep
of Melville. Walkers and their socialized dogs
are privileged to use this small 10 ha reserve
of public open space. One regular walker
remarked, I just have to come up here every
day to preserve my peace and sanity. There
is no evidence of human impact on this
section except for the meandering paths, but
the impact of the environment on us is very
calming. It is a good place to de-stress. The fit,
or hoping-to-get-fit brigade, also enjoy the
challengeof a hikeina beautiful environment.
Melville Koppies Central is a 50 ha
section with controlled access. This is
the ultimate outdoor classroom, where
a wide range of guided tours, field work
and research takes place. These tours
help to educate people about our natural
environment so that they understand it
and appreciate it more. After a general
guided tour on a Sunday, visitors never
look at a piece of veld in the same way
again. The views and the wide open space
of rolling soft grasses are always a wow
factor, even for unfazed teenage mall-rats
who appear to be impervious to anything
in their environment, except the opposite
sex. People with a particular interest such
as flowers, trees, fungi, geology or birds are
enthralled at the richness that the koppies
offer on such specialist tours. On school
tours, there are challenges that many city
kids have never faced such as scrambling
up rocks, tramping through grass as high
as an elephants eye, observing sweeping
vistas from giddying vantage points,
balancing on rocks in the clean burbling
spruit, winding through a deep forest and
then vasbyt on the long uphill trek back to
the starting point.
These comments by visiting children
speak volumes.
I can see the whole world from here!
No man, its just South Africa.
I wish I could come here every day.
This place brings back the fondest
memories! (From a six year-old on a
repeat visit.)
Dis hoekom hulle sit so mooi! (On hearing
that the rocks are 3 billion years old.)
The riva was the best for me. I likked it (sic.
A written comment from a grade 1 pupil.)
I made the walk!
Bosman summed up our need for a
beautiful natural environment in these
words, The nature of man is that his feet
should stand one on the veld and one on
the street. (The earth is waiting.)
*In an article on the Africana Museum, Johannesburg.
ABOVE: Second-year University of Johannesburg Visual Arts student, Chantel Marais, with her interpretation of a project on the impact/integration of landscapes and land-usage set by senior
lecturer, David Paton. Three levels are illustrated: the detritus of humanity in the foreground; ethereal Melville Koppies in the centre and the iconic Hillbrow Tower of the Johannesburg CBD on
the horizon. The students spent a morning at Melville Koppies sketching landscapes in preparation for the project. Photo: Wendy Carstens.
OPPOSITE PAGE: I wish I could come here every day. A group of children winding their way through the forest at Melville Koppies. Photo: Wendy Carstens.
GET CONNECTED
Wendy Carstens can be contacted at fomk@
mk.org.za or on the website www.mk.org.
za or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.
com/melvillekoppies.
READING
Bosman, Herman Charles. 1974. The earth is
waiting. Human & Rousseau, Pretoria.
Carstens, Wendy. 2011. Before the spring
rains: A walk in the grassland flora of Melville
Koppies. Veld & Flora 97(2), 64-67.
VELD&FLORA | JUNE 2012 78 JUNE 2012 | VELD&FLORA 79