Wellington was established around around about 1695 and by then it was known as the "Lamiet" valley
because of the limits that the mountains posed around the town, and then in later on it became
the "wagenmaakers" (wagon makers) valley in French the Valdeshiron because all the wagons that came from the Cape came through
Wellington and the wagons they were restored here in town and that was where "wagenmaakers vallei, die vallei van die waenmaakers" ( Valley of the wagon makers)
that's where that started, only in 1840 we adapted the name wellington with no
the connection to anyone, it was either Napier or Wellington and we got Wellington
My name is Olivia Le Cordeur and we are in the beautiful town of wellington
I'm the Museum Manager at the local museum, the fancy name will be the Curator but that is not
what we normally do I think the whole crux of the job is mostly to manage the museum and to
look after the history of our town. History is important simply because I think we live history
every day, and unfortunately people don't know that we live history every day they think their
ordinary lives are not important but here we try to make history even more important to say that
your ordinary life is actually important to us and to the community of Wellington
I think we definitely have a rich history in South Africa and surely the world when it comes to writing about the places we come from.
I know for me that place is really important. So I grew up in the Eastern Cape, I'll write a lot about the sea and the place where I come from. And this is also
for Wellington, we've got a fantastic writers that originate from here, we have great poets such as Breyton Breytenbach, Adam Small,
but also which is great for me as a musician, Valient Swart is originally from here,
and Valient has songs about Wellington, so I think music is a way for people to gain entry to a place
and to learn about a place through the lyrics, and then later when they think about it they go "hang on there's a song about that place I'd like to go see it"
[ original song]
I am Deon Meiring and we're here in Wellington, in the Western Cape, not New Zealand, its important to highlight the difference.
Wellington's population is so diverse you can have, it it is phenomenal actually you
would never be able to say it fits into one particular category, if you had to put the whole
of Wellington's population at one table you would be flabbergasted to see how varied the
personalities are and that's what makes it such a beautiful town it accommodates everybody from
yoga classes right through to tou trek ( tug-of-war) My name is Tom Turner and this is our family farm Bontebok
Ridge Reserve in Wellington. Well when I used to do game capture and wildlife translocation I wanted
to be a bontebok baron so I used to phone my dad and say I'm sending bontebok back from all
over south or the Western Cape and we started with many bontebok and in fact they're a very difficult
and finicky species to breed with they need a lot of space and not a lot of competition so although
we have about 50 /60 eland we've only got about 10 or less bontebok so we should have actually
called our farm Eland, but but now yeah bontebok all are very special to our area they were less
than there were very few left and so critically endangered by their numbers they've recovered well
What what we've tried to do on our farm is with my background and Katja's background
in managing national parks in Southern Africa is to bring a bit of Africa back to our farm
not micromanage, macromanage take down fences we're pulling out all our vines to bring the area back
to its indigenous state and then to allow people to see what it is like to do conservation farming
and and rather form with nature than against so it's a it's a magical space we're in at the moment
it every school groups coming through the farm um it's important to expose the youth to
natural farming rather than lots of chemicals and just going back to basics. You know I think what's
nice about Wellington is the openness the freedom wonderful schools you know the kids that you know
my kids at our school Hugo Rust they could go to school I think up to standard three bare feet and
you know and and it was just fantastic and after school they could go wherever at that stage we
used to live in town, where you still got the guest house which is also a massive place six thousand
square meters in the middle of town and the tennis court so they were playing they're outside the
real South African kids and then on the farms they're in the mountains and then the dams and
the hunting and fishing and you know that type of thing so and they're riding bicycle because
it's so safe and easy enough for people to come to our farm even for young novice riders there's
20/ 30 kilometers of gravel road with hardly any cars we get a lot of people coming here you've
got a single track Wellington's got all of the best single tracks in the world that's why the
Cape Epic comes through here every year and our farm every epic technical stop you know in a watering
stop and they come right past my house and that's fantastic you know so we have a lot of events
we've just had the Cape Town Tens here we were limited to 2 000 people they played rugby on my
cricket field we have a lot of mountain bike races from here also run the vines so Wellington is in
in that respect they're very unique. I'm Schalk Burger and we're on the Welberdacht Wine Estate
where we've been, wine's been made since 1830.
Wellington is a town with a 300 year history, with deep tracks, and we call Wellington the heart of the winelands, because it is a town with heart.
My name is Miranda and we are in Wellington.
I am the membership liason manager of the Drakenstein Local Tourism Association. I don't want to say Wellington
is different or Paarl is different or Stellenbosch, for me they are one. Every town
every town is a small part of the picture of the winelands, and it forms a puzzle that all fits together to make the bigger picture of the winelands,
every town unique, yet similarity with what they offerings such as wine and what they offer, yet still different.
If I describe the winelands it's beautiful small towns with a lot to offer
predominantly wine farms but not only that there's beautiful historical buildings a lot of history
in each town not only in Wellington a lot of different characters, interesting characters
from all walks of life so it's very down to earth but has got a lot to offer
My name is Carol Ann Jeffrey and we're in Wellington in the winelands
What doesn't, what makes Wellington special well I always turn it around and say what doesn't make
Wellington special, it is just the most fabulous place and the unfortunate thing it is somehow been
forgotten on most tourist maps you'll find that it sounds like the wine lands and everything end
in Stellenbosch or Franschhoek or Paarl even and Wellington gets forgotten, and Wellington is
actually a fantastic well-hidden secret and where people should come they make wonderful wines
and again you will meet and get really, really interesting fabulous people who come
who live here in Wellington and Wine Walk takes you and you meet those people. my name is Elaine
Wegelin and we are in beautiful Wellington. We take people for lovely trips through these
magnificent vineyards and introduce them to the area and most importantly many fabulous characters
Vineyards and farms have been around since 1699 so with our modern young dynamic wine makers
new techniques, different methods of making new and different terroir I think we're giving the older
classic wine maker and farms definitely a run for their money, so bringing a
different spin to Wellington and making it quite popular. Breyton Breytenbach is one of the
most well known Poets not just in Holland or France, but the world. He grew up here and went overseas at a very young age
He married a Vietnamese woman, shortly after, due to apartheid, he wasn't able to return, he did because he cares so much for this land and its people,
and he ended up being held for 9 years in solitary confinement, where he served out 7 in jail during the time of apartheid
there he wrote in jail, poems etc, and then returned to France where he has a place as well as in Spain, Gerona Catilonia, where he established himself as a Poet
what very few people know, a very good sculpturer
My name is Anne-Ghrett Erasmus Coetzee, and I am in Wellington in the Breytenbach Centre.
It's an Art and Culture, a place for the community, a place where we can share, be artistic on all levels, so yes we started out in 2008 and here we still are.
um throughout the years different people came through Wellington and stayed in Wellington
um I think the San and the Khoi they have always been here we have records of them
in the paintings in the in the mountains that they have always been here and that is something
that I think we should treasure um the French Huegenots came later on
and later on the English came and all those influence had an influence on the population
and how the population is composed so these are really a vibrance there's a "mengelmoes" (Mixture) of people
all kinds of all races we have a huge Muslim community also in Wellington we have um Church
influence was big so also that played a part in how the population of Wellington is compiled
Well you know I think a visit to Wellington uh is a must, you know in in in real international
terms of day travel you don't want to go further than an hour, hour and a half either you know out on the way
back so you know Stellenbosch is was the well-traveled area, now people going to Robertson and further field
you know we're 45 minutes technically from the outskirts of Cape Town to Wellington and it's a
beautiful ride out there and in Wellington there's a lot to do, you know to overnight
for a night or two whatever, and we've got the James Sedgwick Distillery where arguably of the
best whiskey's outside of Scotland's been made, we've got a lot of wine farms here and
it's there are still gravel roads you can travel on between the farms you know we're
Stellenbosch is maybe, and they're doing a wonderful job of marketing the Western Cape
it's become nearly like Sonoma and California, here you don't see cars and you you know it's it's it's
very rural you can come out here and spend the day have a picnic walk through the vineyards and
and um so Wellington in that that respect is very laid back with great wines great people
I think it's got character, I think it's it's got a charisma to it which other people the places haven't got
Wellington is from from a point of view of a little town when I grew up here
and I went to school in cape town everyone said Wellington was on the other side of the tunnel
because they thought it was Worcester, now Wellington has developed so beautifully it's
a very cosmopolitan town and I think very proud to have seen the growth in Wellington it's a it's
developed into a very universal space for people it's not one just agricultural community it's
got beautiful developments where people from town actually work from Wellington and and go into town
once a week maybe now so it's it's blossomed. um in Wellington um this the saying will be
we from the wax seven six double five hashtag seven six double five which is our postal code
and um I think that is quite you know where you're from from the works it's quite a thing people will
wear the t-shirts saying with the slogan on from walks and would be like we and it is very um to a
certain group ethnic group but it it is nice and deserving to it it has a little sassiness to it
I'm sitting here in the Breytenbach Centre and I think one of the nicest things written about Wellington comes from Breyton Breytenbachs pen...
It's a well know poem but I think one of those poems that is worth hearing and reading over and over again
the last few lines, I probably won't remember it correctly, but...
"come with me when I die and go to my father in Wellington where the angels fish with fat worms from stars in the the sky;
let us die and perish and be merry: my father has a big boarding house"
I think that's beautiful.
and that's Wellington