Scottburgh, KwaZulu-Natal
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Scottburgh is a resort town situated on the mouth of the Mpambanyoni River (confuser of birds), 58 km south of Durban on KwaZulu-Natal south coast in South Africa. Neighbouring towns include Pennington, Renishaw, Freeland Park, Umkomaas, Sezela, Bazley, Amahlongwa, Clansthal, Park Rynie and Dududu.
Named after Natal Colony Governor John Scott and in 1860 it became the first township to be laid out south of Durban, but was initially known as Devonport. It became a municipality in 1964.
Scottburgh is situated on the South Bank of the Mpambinyoni River, a short river that culminates in a lagoon. The Mpambinyoni mouth has fluctuated in surface area and volume dramatically over the years, largely due to the frequent droughts, occasional cyclones, and other extreme weather conditions that can affect KwaZulu-Natal.
Most notorious of the above-mentioned cyclones was Cyclone Demoina of 1987, which resulted in widespread flooding and infrastructural damage, including the destruction of the Old Main Road bridge from Durban and Umkomaas.
Scottburgh has a number of educational institutions, including a number of pre-primary schools, a bilingual Primary School, and an English Language High School. Wildlife found regularly inside the township includes snakes, numerous insects, and most famously, large numbers of vervet monkeys. Genets have been sighted, and there are occasional unverified spottings of civets and similar small felines and cat-like mammals. Birds are abundant, perhaps the most noticeable being the raucous and much-loved Hadeda Ibis. The Sardine Run is also visible from the shores of Scottburgh and its surroundings most winters. The Umdoni and Strelitzia are the most well-known trees specifically associated with Scottburgh and its environs.
Well-known people associated with Scottburgh include former Springbok rugby player Joel Stransky and the late world-renowned conservationist Tony Pooley.
Scottburgh is also particularly renowned for its large surfing community, although superior waves are in fact usually found about 5 kilometres north, at Green Point, Clansthal. However, the appeal of Scottburgh Beach is in its grass-covered banks leading down to sandy beaches, which have made it a popular holiday resort for South Africans and foreign holidaymakers alike for many years.
North of the Mpambinyoni lies the suburb of Freeland Park, largely residential but also possessing the Cutty Sark Hotel and a river populated by juvenile and adolescent crocodiles. These crocodiles are also the product of the 1987 cyclone, when infant crocodiles escaped from the nearby Crocworld theme park. South of Scottburgh proper, and separated from it by the Country Club, Golf Course, and a considerable expanse of bush, is Scottburgh South, and a few kilometres inland lies the Sugarcane farming hamlet of Renishaw, most well-known for its chapel.
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