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Sutherland is a town with about 2,841 inhabitants in the
Northern Cape The Northern Cape ( ; ; ) is the largest and most sparsely populated Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley, South Africa, Kimberley. It includes ...
province 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 lies in the western Roggeveld Mountains in the
Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe Khoemana (also known as !Orakobab or Korana) word is a semidesert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is ...
.


History

Sutherland was founded in 1855 as a church and market town to serve the area's sheep farmers. By 1872 the town had a population of 138 registered citizens living in 19 houses. The large
Dutch Reformed church The Dutch Reformed Church (, , abbreviated NHK ) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the traditional denomination of the Dutch royal famil ...
in the centre of Sutherland was built in 1899. During the
Anglo Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...
the church was used as a fort by garrisoned British soldiers. During the war a number of engagements between British and Boer forces occurred in the town. In one such engagement a force of 250 Boer commandos attacked the local British garrison for 10 hours. The ruins of a fort can be found on the outskirts of town on the hill called Rebelskop. This was named after this engagement.


Economy

Major economic activities include tourism and sheep farming. The area includes at least twelve registered B&B's, guest houses and guest farms. The nearby
South African Astronomical Observatory The South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) is the national centre for optical and infrared astronomy in South Africa. It was established in 1972. The observatory is run by the National Research Foundation of South Africa. The facility's f ...
also plays a significant role in the town's economy and is a major driver of tourism to the area. The town also has a number of bars, restaurants and an
amateur astronomy Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the Naked eye, unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astr ...
observatory that service the tourism sector. Sutherland has recently gained in popularity, with many
Capetonian Cape Town is the legislative capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's second-largest city by population, after Johannesburg, and the largest city in t ...
s buying property in the town and many more visiting on weekends and vacations.


Geography

Sutherland's arid climate and remote location above
sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...
make its night skies among the world's clearest and darkest. The telescopes of the
South African Astronomical Observatory The South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) is the national centre for optical and infrared astronomy in South Africa. It was established in 1972. The observatory is run by the National Research Foundation of South Africa. The facility's f ...
are nearby at . These include the
Southern African Large Telescope The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) is a 9.2-metre optical telescope designed mainly for spectroscopy. It consists of 91 hexagonal mirror segments each with a 1-metre inscribed diameter, resulting in a total hexagonal mirror of 11.1 by 9 ...
(SALT), the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere.


Climate

Sutherland is the coldest town in South Africa, although the farm Buffelsfontein near Molteno holds the official lowest temperature record in Continental South Africa, of . The South African
Prince Edward Islands The Prince Edward Islands are two small uninhabited subantarctic volcanic islands in the southern Indian Ocean that are administered by South Africa. They are named Marion Island (named after Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, 1724–1772) and P ...
have experienced significantly lower temperatures, however, these islands have sub-Antarctic, highland climates and are located well to the southeast of mainland South Africa. Snowfall in Sutherland is common in winter, And precipitation ranges from 170mm to 300mm mostly in the form of rain.  The coldest temperature recorded in Sutherland was on 12 July 2003,South African Weather Service
And the lowest Daytime temperature was recorded at -6 °C on 2 August 2012. Sutherland has a
semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of se ...
(
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
'' ''BSk''''). The climate record is sparse; the data below is drawn from the 2017-2020 records.


Notable residents

Notable residents of Sutherland include: * NP van Wyk Louw, famous Afrikaner poet and elder brother of WEG Louw was born in Sutherland. * WEG Louw, famous Afrikaner poet and younger brother of NP van Wyk Louw was born in Sutherland. * Dr Henry Olivier, chief engineer of the Kariba Dam project and contributing inventor of the Mulberry Harbours was born in Sutherland. * Adriaan Vlok, national government minister of Law and Order from 1986 to 1991 was born in Sutherland. * André van der Merwe, a famous South African urologist born in Sutherland.


See also

*
South African Astronomical Observatory The South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) is the national centre for optical and infrared astronomy in South Africa. It was established in 1972. The observatory is run by the National Research Foundation of South Africa. The facility's f ...
*
Southern African Large Telescope The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) is a 9.2-metre optical telescope designed mainly for spectroscopy. It consists of 91 hexagonal mirror segments each with a 1-metre inscribed diameter, resulting in a total hexagonal mirror of 11.1 by 9 ...


References


External links


South African Astronomical Observatory website

Discover Sutherland
*
Sutherland on www.karoo-southafrica.co.za
{{Namakwa District Municipality Populated places in the Karoo Hoogland Local Municipality Karoo Populated places established in 1858 1858 establishments in the British Empire