Page 37 - KBHA BULLETIN 5

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Total length of HLR: 3,5 miles
Constructed November 1922 – October 1923: 0,5 miles
Estimated cost: £32 000 for roadbed and road
: £18 000 for kerb and channel, tarring of road, gravelling of pavements
: £175 for transfer of convict station from Slangkop
: £400 for purchase of station itself
: 200 convicts @ 1/- day for approximately 2 years.

On 30 October 1923 Council approved an allocation of £8,000 for the 1924 phase of work. The

following week an inspection was made to find a site for the convict station. The inspection
group consisted of Councillor Dr Abdullah Abdurahman, Councillor Mr Boyes, Mr Lloyd-

Davies, and Mr Dyason. They agreed on the ravine behind the Seahurst Hotel above Kimberley

Road. (Fig. 3.8.) However, the site area required would encroach on some land owned by Miss
M. E. Molteno and so the Council had to enter into a lease arrangement with her. She agreed to a

monthly lease of £7 and that, after completion of the road, the site be levelled and stabilised to
make it suitable for foundations for substantial houses. She was very firm that this in turn would

require the construction of a retaining wall across the seaward side of the site. This matter was
settled in late December 1923. (Much later the mansion ‘Petrava’, in the Colonial West Virginian

style, was built on the site by Mrs Clegg.)

Fig. 3.8: Site of temporary convict station at the top of
Kimberley Road, Kalk Bay.

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