Salisbury Island is located inside the

Port of Durban The Port of Durban, commonly called Durban Harbour, is the largest and busiest shipping terminal in sub-Saharan Africa. It handles up to 31.4 million tons of cargo each year. It is the fourth largest container terminal in the Southern Hemisphe ...

on the east coast of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

; it is a

former island A former island is a mass of land that was once an island, but has been joined to a mainland, another island, or engulfed by a body of water. The process of joining might be the result of volcanic activity, moving tidal sands, or through land re ...

until the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

when construction of a

naval base A naval base, navy base, or military port is a military base, where warships and naval ships are docked when they have no mission at sea or need to restock. Ships may also undergo repairs. Some naval bases are temporary homes to aircraft that usu ...

connected it to the mainland by a

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet T ...

. The island, then a

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

-covered sandbank, was named after , the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

ship that surveyed the future harbour area for the newly established Port Natal Colony in the 1820s.

Second World War and after

Naval Base Durban Naval Base Durban in Durban harbour is a naval base of the South African Navy, situated on Salisbury Island, which is now joined to the mainland through land reclamation. It was formerly a full naval base until it was downgraded to a naval st ...

was constructed for the Royal Navy during the Second World War in response to the threat of Japanese attacks on shipping along the east coast of Africa. It was during this construction that the island became a peninsula through the construction of a causeway. After the war the base was turned over to the South African Naval Service (SANS), which has since maintained a fluctuating and intermittent presence. With the signing of the

Simonstown Agreement The Simonstown Agreement was a naval cooperation agreement between the United Kingdom and South Africa, signed on 30 June 1955. Under the agreement, the Royal Navy (RN) gave up its naval base at Simon's Town, South Africa, and transferred com ...

in 1957, the

gave up its control of the SANS in exchange for the use of the base at Simon's Town. The SANS became the

South African Navy The South African Navy (SA Navy) is the naval warfare branch of the South African National Defence Force. The Navy is primarily engaged in maintaining a conventional military deterrent, participating in counter-piracy operations, fishery prote ...

(SAN) and Salisbury Island its main base. When the Simonstown Agreement ended the SAN moved most of its operations to Simon's Town and Durban became a secondary facility.

University College for Indians

In 1961, the University College for Indians was established on Salisbury Island. It closed down in 1971, when it was replaced by the

University of Durban-Westville The University of Durban-Westville (UDW) was a university situated in Westville, a town situated near Durban, South Africa, which opened in 1972. It is now one of the campuses of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It was initially established for ...

. Under

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

the different population groups in South Africa had to have separate facilities. The college was the first fully fledged tertiary educational institution for

Indian South Africans Indian South Africans are South Africans who descend from indentured labourers and free migrants who arrived from British Raj, British India during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The majority live in and around the city of Durban, making it ...

. Students used to commute to the college by ferry or boarded in hostels on the island. Alumni of the college include

Pravin Gordhan Pravin Jamnadas Gordhan (12 April 1949 – 13 September 2024) was a South African politician and anti-apartheid activist who held various ministerial posts in the Cabinet of South Africa. He served as Minister of Finance from 2009 until 2014, ...

, the former

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

, Roy Padayachie, the former Minister of Public Service and Administration, and author and curator Sarat Maharaj.

Naval base again

From the mid 1970s until the early 1990s, it was the home base of the Minister class strike craft flotilla. Even after the closure of the college, the island maintained a link with the Indian community in the form of which was the main training facility for Indian South African sailors. Upon the retirement of the strike craft, all combat ships of the navy were based at Naval Base Simon's Town and the Durban base was reduced to a

naval station A naval base, navy base, or military port is a military base, where warships and naval ships are docked when they have no mission at sea or need to restock. Ships may also undergo repairs. Some naval bases are temporary homes to aircraft that usu ...

in 2002. Some of the facilities of the base were then taken over by the army as a general support base. In 2012, a decision to base the navy's offshore patrol flotilla in Durban led to a programme of renovation to restore the facility back to full naval base status. In December 2015, it was redesignated a naval base as the home port of the patrol flotilla.

References

{{reflist, 2 Indian Ocean islands of South Africa Former islands Ports and harbours of South Africa