Abstract
One market for Natal coal lay in the Transvaal, across the 3000 metre-high Drakensberg escarpment. The South African Railways provided a second market, and a third lay in Durban, for export and ships’ bunkers. Between the coalfields and the city of Pietermaritzburg on the way to Durban were the Drakensberg foothills, varying in altitude from 600 metres to 1500 metres, with railway line gradients as high as 1 in 50. Between Pietermaritzburg and Durban was the Valley of a Thousand Hills. The Natal coalfields were separated from their markets by difficult transport country.
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Notes and References
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© 1984 Renfrew Christie
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Christie, R. (1984). Coal, Railways and Escom, 1914–33. In: Electricity, Industry and Class in South Africa. St Antony’s Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07030-5_5
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