Noteworthy events during the lifetime of this tree, planted in about 1850 in the Botanic Gardens, now the Public Gardens, Cape Town. The tree was struck by lightning, felled and removed in 1939.
Image: Cross-section through the Norfolk Island Pine.
1850
Convict ship dispatched from Cape to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) as a result of local anti-convict agitation.
Heerengracht renamed Adderley Street, after British MP Charles Adderley, who championed agitation against the importation of convicts to the Cape Colony.
1851
First oranges exported to England; made possible by a steamship service.
1852
No. 1 Reservoir built below Camp Street.
1854
First Cape Parliament sat in the Lodge de Goede Hoop, Cape Town, on 30 June.
Gold discovered in the Transvaal.
Cape Commercial Bank opened.
1855
South African Museum reconstituted.
1856
Open canal in Adderley Street covered.
Wooden street paving introduced.
1857
Earthquake in Cape Town on 14 August.
Vlei on Green Point Common used for boating and model boat races.
Monthly mail service to England undertaken by Union Steamship Company; the voyage took 42 days.
St Mary’s Cathedral in Roeland Street completed.
1858
Strand Street macadamised.
1859
Construction commenced of the Library and Museum Building – now the National Library of South Africa – in the Company’s Gardens.
Construction on first railway, from Cape Town to Wellington, started.
1860
Visit of Prince Alfred to the Cape. This was the first royal visit to the Colony.
First barrow of soil tipped by Prince Alfred for the construction of Table Bay Docks on 17 July.
No. 2 Reservoir built below Camp Street.
Penny postage introduced for letters within the City.
First telegraph service, a privately owned line, introduced from Cape Town to Simon’s Town.
1861
First horse-drawn tram service introduced between Cape Town and Sea Point.
1862
First sod turned for the railway between Cape Town and Wynberg.
1863
Visit of the privateer the CSS Alabama to Cape Town.
Old Synagogue built on St John’s Street, Gardens.
1864
Railway between Cape Town and Wynberg opened.
Noon Gun first fired by electricity.
1865
60 people died and 18 ships lost in Table Bay in the great gale on the night of 17 May.
Lighthouse on Robben Island lit for the first time.
Statue of Sir George Grey – the first statue in Cape Town – erected in the Botanic Gardens.
1867
First diamond discovered at Hopetown.
Second visit of Prince Alfred to the Cape.
First Mayor of Cape Town installed.
Severe drought in Cape Town; it did not affect the growth of this tree.
1869
The steamship the Great Eastern arrived in Table Bay. A token penny was issued by local firm Marsh & Sons to mark the event.
Public executions abolished.
1870
Streets lit by gas during winter.
Tinned meats exported experimentally from the Cape.
Alfred Docks opened on 17 May.
1872
Responsible government granted to the Cape Colony.
1873
University of Cape of Good Hope, the forerunner of University of South Africa, founded.
Visit of the HMS Challenger to Cape Town during its marine research expedition around the world.
1874
Foundation stone laid of present Houses of Parliament.
Construction of Molteno Reservoir commenced.
1877
First South African International Exhibition held in Cape Town.
1878
Arrival of the first telephones.
1879
Metropolitan Church built on Greenmarket Square.
1880
Pillar boxes introduced in Cape Town.
1881
The bursting of the newly completed Molteno Reservoir floods Cape Town.
1882
Robinson Graving Dock constructed.
1883
Standard Bank Building in Adderley Street opened.
1884
First exhibition of South African products and manufactured goods held in Cape Town.
1885
Telephone exchange opened in Cape Town.
Simon’s Town docks taken over by British Admiralty.
1886
First masonry building, the Colonial Mutual Building – with the first lift – erected in Cape Town.
Present Houses of Parliament opened.
Malay cemeteries closed on Signal Hill, under protest.
1887
Jubilee of Queen Victoria celebrated, and her statue erected in the garden of the Houses of Parliament.
1889
First submarine cable to England laid.
1890
Railway station (on the present Golden Acre site) rebuilt and extended.
1892
Botanic Gardens ceded to Cape Town Municipality as Public Gardens.
Municipal electricity scheme inaugurated.
1893
Commercial Exchange, on the site of the present OK Furniture/Shoprite Building in Adderley Street, demolished.
Opening of Opera House on 31 August.
1895
Earthquake in Cape Town on 7 September.
De Waal Park, formerly Jubilee Park, laid out.
1896
Streets lit by electricity.
SS Pieter Faure, a Cape Government marine survey vessel, commissioned.
1897
First electric tram service introduced.
South African Museum Building opened on present site.
Old General Post Office – the biggest building in South Africa at the time – opened on Adderley Street, on the site of the present OK Building.
First motor car arrived in Cape Town; driven by JP Hess and known as ‘Coffeepot’.
Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebrated.
1898
New Street, formerly Thuyn Street, renamed Queen Victoria Street.
1899
Coat of arms, granted to Cape Town by Commissioner-General Jacob Abraham de Mist in 1804, confirmed by letters patent.
Fresh produce market opened on Sir Lowry Road.
Mount Nelson Hotel opened.
Outbreak of the Second Boer War.
1900
City Hall foundation stone laid.
Balloon ascent from Rosebank showgrounds. Aeronaut dropped in Molteno Reservoir, and was drowned.
1901
Visit of Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George V and Queen Mary).
Foundation stone of new St George’s Cathedral laid by Duke of Cornwall and York.
General mourning of Queen Victoria’s death.
Last toll gate, in Woodstock, abolished.
1902
Scenic tram service to Camps Bay, via Clifton and Kloof Neck, introduced.
1903
Death of Cecil John Rhodes.
Memorial tablet erected by the South African Philosophical Society on the site of De la Caille’s Observatory on Strand Street.
1904
New Synagogue built on St John’s Street, Gardens.
1905
City Hall completed.
1906
First service held in the crypt of the new St George’s Cathedral.
1906/7
First aeroplane demonstrated at the Cape.
1908
First silent cinematography film shown in the Good Hope Hall.
1910
Act of Union of South Africa.
Historical Pageant staged at Cape Town.
Death of King Edward VII.
Pageant, depicting South Africa’s history, staged in Cape Town.
1911
Construction of a 300-metre-long pier commenced at the foot of Adderley Street.
1912
Aerial record established by Evelyn ‘Bok’ Driver, by flying over Table Mountain in a monoplane with a Gnome engine and wing membrane of silk.
Captain Robert Scott died in the Antarctic. Cape Town had been the refit station for his expedition’s ships. (Argosy monument at lower end of Adderley Street.)
1913
Koopmans-de Wet House opened as a cultural history annexe of the South African Museum.
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens opened.
Pier opened by Sir Nicolaas Frederic de Waal, Administrator of the Cape Province.
Greater Cape Town formed by the amalgamation of the suburban municipalities, with the exception of Wynberg, with Cape Town Municipality.
1914
Municipal Orchestra (later the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra) founded.
1916
The Slave Tree, an old fir-tree on Church Square, removed.
1917
The Michaelis Collection in the Old Town House officially opened.
1920
The government’s fisheries survey vessel, SS Pickle, commissioned.
Death of Olive Schreiner in Cape Town.
1922
First wireless broadcast in Cape Town by John Streeter.
1923
Carillon installed in City Hall.
First Union coinage in Cape Town.
1924
First official broadcast by Cape Town Broadcasting Company, from the Argus Building.
1925
Visit of Prince of Wales to South Africa; he laid the foundation stone for the new buildings of the University of Cape Town in Rondebosch.
Afrikaans declared an official language.
1926
The late Captain Scott’s ship the Discovery, reconditioned for research on whales and Antarctic marine biology, visited the Cape.
1927
African Broadcasting Company founded.
1928
First ‘talkie’ film shown at the Astoria in Woodstock.
Wynberg Municipality amalgamated with Greater Cape Town.
1929
Table Mountain Cableway opened.
The Great Depression begins.
1930
Camps Bay scenic tram route closed.
RRS Discovery II, a whaling and Antarctic research ship, refitted in Cape Town.
South African National Gallery opened.
Delville Wood memorial and garden in Company’s Garden opened.
1931
The government’s fisheries vessel, RV Africana, commissioned.
1932
New wing of South African Museum, housing the ethnology and mammal galleries, opened.
1934
Cape Archives transferred to the former university building in Queen Victoria Street.
1936
Death of King George V.
Present South African Broadcasting Corporation founded.
1937
Opera House closed on 7 January and demolished to make way for the present General Post Office.
Coronation of King George VI.
1938
Pier demolished for the reclamation of Rogge Bay and construction of Duncan Docks.
1939
Tramcars replaced by trackless trams.
The Mutual Building in Darling Street and the General Post Office, Cape Town’s tallest buildings for the next 20 years, neared completion.
Outbreak of World War II.
Tree struck by lightning, felled and removed.
