Darwendale is a small town in southern

Zvimba District Zvimba District is a district of Mashonaland West Province, Zimbabwe. Location The district is located in Mashonaland West Province, in central northern Zimbabwe. Zvimba District is bordered by Guruve District to the north, Mazowe District to th ...

Mashonaland West Mashonaland West is a province of Zimbabwe. It has an area of 57,441 km² and a population of approximately 1.5 million (2012). Chinhoyi is the capital of the province. Districts Mashonaland West is divided into 7 districts: * Chegutu * ...

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

, on the Gwebi River. It is located about west of

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

. According to the 1982 census, the village had a population of 3,264. Darwendale is regarded as one of Zimbabwe's fastest growing towns. The village grew from Otto Christian Zimmerman's farm which was pegged out in the 1890s to grow

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

. This once productive tobacco producing node of Zimbabwe is now mainly visited for fishing in Darwendale Dam which boasts

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, but ...

where the largest catch outside of the United States and Mexico was recorded on July 25, 2004, weighing 8.2 kilograms. The Darwendale recreational park, located in the area closest to the dam wall, is home to various game. The most prevalent species are

sable The sable (''Martes zibellina'') is a species of marten, a small omnivorous mammal primarily inhabiting the forest environments of Russia, from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, and northern Mongolia. Its habitat also borders eastern Kaza ...

kudu The kudus are two species of antelope of the genus ''Tragelaphus'': * Lesser kudu, ''Tragelaphus imberbis'', of eastern Africa * Greater kudu, ''Tragelaphus strepsiceros'', of eastern and southern Africa The two species look similar, thou ...

waterbuck The waterbuck (''Kobus ellipsiprymnus'') is a large antelope found widely in sub-Saharan Africa. It is placed in the genus '' Kobus'' of the family Bovidae. It was first described by Irish naturalist William Ogilby in 1833. Its 13 subspecies ar ...

bush pig :''"Bush pig" may also refer to the red river hog. The bushpig (''Potamochoerus larvatus'') is a member of the Suidae, pig family that inhabits forests, woodland, riverine vegetation and cultivated areas in East Africa, East and Southern Africa. ...

reedbuck Reedbuck is a common name for Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it ...

common duiker The common duiker (''Sylvicapra grimmia''), also known as the grey or bush duiker, is a small antelope and the only member of the genus ''Sylvicapra''. This species is found everywhere in Africa south of the Sahara, excluding the Horn of Africa ...

warthog ''Phacochoerus'' is a genus in the family Suidae, commonly known as warthogs (pronounced ''wart-hog''). They are pigs who live in open and semi-open habitats, even in quite arid regions, in sub-Saharan Africa. The two species were formerly cons ...

baboon Baboons are primates comprising the genus ''Papio'', one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys. There are six species of baboon: the hamadryas baboon, the Guinea baboon, the olive baboon, the yellow baboon, the Kinda baboon and the chacma ba ...

vervet monkey The vervet monkey (''Chlorocebus pygerythrus''), or simply vervet, is an Old World monkey of the family Cercopithecidae native to Africa. The term "vervet" is also used to refer to all the members of the genus ''Chlorocebus''. The five distinct ...

oribi The oribi (; ''Ourebia ourebi'') is a small antelope found in eastern, southern and western Africa. The sole member of its genus, it was described by the German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann in 1783. While this is the only m ...

and

porcupine Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two families of animals: the Old World porcupines of family Hystricidae, and the New World porcupines of family, Erethizont ...

. In the 1920s chromium mines were opened along the

Great Dyke The Great Dyke is a linear geological feature that trends nearly north-south through the centre of Zimbabwe passing just to the west of the capital, Harare. It consists of a band of short, narrow ridges and hills spanning for approximately . The ...

in the

Lomagundi district Lomagundi is a former district of Zimbabwe, originally an alternative form of the name ''Nemakonde'', who was a chief of the Shona in the area. The eastern border of Lomagundi was the Great Dyke The Great Dyke is a linear geological feature t ...

both north and south of town. Darwendale centre used to be a town where people from the nearby mines would come to do their everyday shopping. However due to the decline in the value of chrome mined in the Great Dyke, the town centre has more recently deteriorated greatly. Grand Dyke Mines is planning on opening two platinum mines in the area.

Notes and references

Further reading