Machadodorp

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Machadodorp is a small town situated near the edge of the escarpment in the Mpumalanga province, South Africa with the Elands River running through the town. There is a natural radioactive spring here that is reputed to have powerful healing qualities. The town grew around a station originally named Geluk, after the sheep farm it was built on, but in 1894 the name was changed to honour Major Joachim Machado, an engineer who had surveyed the land for the proposed Pretoria-Delagoa Bay railway line. The settlement became a capital for a few months from 5 June 1900, but was only declared a municipal town in 1904. This quirk in history happened during the Second Boer War when the Transvaal Volksraad made the town their temporary seat, using railway carriages as their offices and munt after they had to evacuate Pretoria in the face of a British invasion. The station closed in 2002, but thanks to a quick thinking station master who had decades earlier rescued a consignment of dying trout by dumping the fish in the Elands River, the town continued to play a large part in Mpumlanga's subsequent trout tourism industry. In the 21st century, Machadodorp's residents either work for the industries feeding a chrome smelter, or the logging industries based on the pine plantations surrounding the town. The Komati Gorge, known for its considerable biodiversity and bluff habitats forms a bacdrop to the town. ^[1]