In this issue:

Editorial
Letter from the Chair
Fisherhaven turns 50
Durr Estates
Bits and bobs

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Editorial

Well Christmas is past and New Year has begun. 2006 promises to be a really exciting one for Fisherhaven.

The Spatial Development Framework is on everyone's lips hopefully the Municipality gets the message this time round. Fisherhaven is not to be messed with.

We are hoping to have a BOOT SALE the LAST SUNDAY of every month outside the Piccaninny. Gert has kindly given his permission and has promised to put a lunch on the menu each and every Sunday. We partook of last Sunday’s and it was delicious as always. Thanks to Mrs. Pat Riley an extremely important milestone has been brought to our attention - WE ARE 50 YEARS OLD this year and to really put Fisherhaven on the map we are trying to organize a Fisherhaven Festival for the Easter Weekend any suggestions and help will be gratefully welcomed. On SUNDAY the 12 FEBRUARY come down to the SLIPWAY with your PICNIC BASKET and if you wish take part in an ANYTHING FLOATS COMPETION.

As there is so much to write about this month I am Cutting this short and will just ask you not to forget DURR ESTATES for all your property needs in the whole of the OVERSTRAND. We are only a phone call away. Dee 072 909 7015 Grenville 072 904 3567 Office 028 316 2499 Don’t forget the Durr Estates lucky draw on Fridays at the Piccaninny.

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From the Chair:
The new committee voted unanimously to use a large portion of our available funds to contact ALL Fisherhaveners and encourage them to join us in our objections to this undesirable development. Speaking of funds – if you haven't yet paid your 35—come, come cough up we need it and the support that goes with it.

Your new committee is, I think a good balance of FRA experience with the return of one member from many moons ago and two entirely new members and the rest in between.

I am sure that this year is going to be an exciting one and we will be concentration our efforts on ensuring we get suitable development on the commonage and other areas around us. We will try again to have the entrance to Fisherhaven from the R43 improved and we will have an FRA representative on the next Ward Committee. (Don’t forget we will need the support of all SA Citizens to achieve that objective) This is, of course, over & above the usual lights, roads, signs, sewerage, etc, etc.

I would also like to thank the members of 2005 committee—you guys worked hard and I am proud of you.

The neighbourhood watch is still very much operative and the report back at the AGM clearly shows we are definitely a factor in the much reduced crime statistics for Fisherhaven.

We will also continue on the Police Forum and I am happy to say that our Neighbourhood Watch is highly thought of by the SAP and Security companies.

However don’t be complacent –we need (Right Now!) some vehicle identification signs and sundry other equipment which will help us to be even more effective and hopefully make life for you and your loved ones a little safer.

If you wish to make a donation—contact John on 315 2686 or myself on 315 1605 or drop it into our boxes in the cafes or Piccaninny Bar.

Sorry—gotta go –lots to do, remember keep em peeled,

Regards
Mike Masterson

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Fisherhaven turns 50
From Pat Riley & Franz Theunissen 2006 marks the 50th birthday of Fisherhaven. Surely an occasion for a good party. Hence the Festival. In terms of Surveyor General’s Diagram No 8732 of 1956 Fisherhaven Township was officially reg-istered in that year. Prior to that, of course, the story goes back much further. The land was originally part of the Afdaksriver Farm which is first recorded as a “loan place” in 1750. The farm was officially surveyed in 1831 but has been sub-sequently partitioned at various times by the owners, of which Portion 5 represented the land which is now Fisherhaven.
This was transferred in 1931 to Josias Servaas Delport who presumably continued to farm it.
During World War 11, between 1943 and 1945, the Royal Air Force Squadron 262 established a diversion base approximately where the Yacht Club is today and Catalina Flying Boats operated from there.

After the war there was great interest in coastal property and in 1948 Portion 5 was bought by developers Walker Bay Investment Co. with the idea of establishing a “seaside resort”  To this end the requisite permissions and planning permits were no doubt obtained in conjunction with the officials of the old Caledon Divisional Council which would administer the new development, and design work undertaken. The new township was named “Fisherhaven” - we can find no record of the name before that time. During 1953 and 1954, the survey and layout co-ordinates of all proposed numbered plots, roads, public open spaces was undertaken by the local Land Surveyor Mr. FJ Pope of Hermanus. Also included in this ambitious scheme which was drawn up for sale in1955, were sites for two churches, a primary School, a Garage, a Cinema, Municipal and Government offices, Parks & Recreational, Business and general residential (Flats etc). The road names given are mostly still with us.

Most interestingly, the survey diagram gives the reason for the absence of development on the southern side of the main road (now China Marais then named Cottonwood Avenue) The roads 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Avenues (now Catamaran, Trimaran, Dabchick & Sharpie) were intended to extend some 500 meters across the road southwards and the land between them divided into 25 smallholdings of ±2 hectares similar to those at Vermont today.

Sadly, for some reason. The smallholdings were not included in the 1956 Registration although everything else was. This has left us ever since with this large expanse of vulnerable overgrown open land (Erf 749) now known as the Commonage. What about reviving the smallholding idea?

The Company appears to have failed without any further work being done and was liquidated in 1967. The property and development plans were sold piecemeal to Lake Marina Properties (Pty) Ltd who set out with great enthusiasm to revive interest. For marketing purposes Fisherhaven was referred to as “Lake Marina”. They built a jetty, a slipway and a boathouse. A landing strip was laid out on the Commonage and a golf course was proposed together with other schemes which sought to implement the original concept. These all appear on a large colourful map handed out by Clive Smith Estates (Pty) Ltd in 1968 but none materialised.

Water pipes were installed and the planned roads were constructed, the prosaic Avenue and Street names being changed to those of sailing dinghy classes. All the plots were quite quickly sold and some houses were built but security was poor and the alien Port Jackson bushes grew overwhelmingly. Mr. Bill Mitchell, Director of Lake Marina Properties suffered failure of other business interests and later died. Fisherhaven became the area’s best kept secret and remains so today —Fisherhaven Where’s that?

Building of mainly holiday homes by those charmed by the beauty and rural peace continued slowly boosted somewhat by the extension of the electricity supply to the whole Town in the 1980’s.

By 1990, however there were only 40 permanent residents.

Administration of Fisherhaven was transferred from the Caledon Divisional Council to the Greater Hermanus Municipality in 1994 and incorporation into the Overstrand Municipality followed in 2001. House building increased dramatically and vigorous security activity initiated by a dedicated Neighbourhood Watch and an active Ratepayers Association have made Fisherhaven increasingly attractive. Recent political integration with Hawston has, however, resulted in under-representation on the Town Council and Ward Committee. In addition administrative and fiscal attention is being diverted to this and other previously disadvantaged areas with resulting continuation of poor service delivery to Fisherhaven.

Nevertheless the last few years have seen increasingly upmarket and multiracial development with an emerging closely-knit community. We are proud of being the first fully integrated society in the area. However, we have now to be seriously on our guard against our interest being overlooked in the present Spatial Development Framework planning process. Of particular concern is the danger of loss of our separate identity, unrestricted inappropriate and over-extensive development and incursion into ecologically sensitive areas.

On the whole we have a lot to celebrate on FISHERHAVEN’S 50TH BIRTHDAY.

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