Orkney (South Africa)
| Orkney | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Coordinates | 26 ° 59 ′ S , 26 ° 40 ′ E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | South Africa | ||
| northwest | |||
| District | Dr Kenneth Kaunda | ||
| ISO 3166-2 | ZA-NW | ||
| local community | City of Matlosana | ||
| height | 1301 m | ||
| Residents | 13,435 (2011) | ||
| founding | 1940 | ||
 Orkney Railway Station (2009)
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Orkney [ ˈɔːknɪ ] is a city in the Northwest Province of South Africa . It is located in the City of Matlosana parish in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda district .
geography
Orkney has a population of 13,435 (2011 census). The township settlement Kanana is to the northwest of the center .
Orkney lies on the border with the province of Free State at 1,301 meters above sea level. The border runs south of the city and is formed here by the Vaal . The larger city of Klerksdorp is only a few kilometers north. The greater area around Klerksdorp and Orkney has over 350,000 inhabitants and forms the industrial center of the north-west province.
history
Gold was found in what is now Orkney in the 1880s . One of the pioneers was Simon Fraser, who was born on Orkney in northern Scotland and who gave the area its name. In 1940 the city of Orkney was founded in the area of the Witkoppen farm . The city was planned by a Scotsman with the surname Machonachie. He named all the streets after British writers. In the midst of an Afrikaans-speaking environment characterized by the African Cathedral, this was unusual. In the 1960s, some of the streets were renamed in the spirit of the Boers .
In 1991, 42 people were trampled to death in a friendly match at the Nicky Oppenheimer Stadium . It was the second worst accident in South African sport. For the 2010 soccer World Cup , the stadium was expanded to 40,000 seats, but was not selected as a venue.
In 2005 and 2014 two earthquakes with magnitudes of 5.3 and 5.5 shook the region around Orkney.
Economy and Transport
Around Orkney, on both sides of the Vaal, gold continues to be mined, for example in the Vaal Reef Gold Mine, one of the largest gold mines in South Africa. The Orkney Ground Nut Factory is the largest peanut factory in the southern hemisphere .
The national road N12 , which runs from Johannesburg to Cape Town , runs through Klerksdorp. The R30 road leads from Orkney, which connects Bloemfontein in the south and Rustenburg in the north.
Orkney is a rail hub. From here routes lead to Klerksdorp and on to Johannesburg, towards Kimberley – Cape Town and to Kroonstad on the Johannesburg – Bloemfontein route. Orkney is crossed once a day in each direction by passenger trains on the Johannesburg – Cape Town route, which stop in Klerksdorp. Orkney has extensive rail facilities for handling freight traffic.
Local air traffic is possible via Orkney Airport .
Others
Orkney was the location of the Afrikaans-language sitcom series with the rhyming title Orkney snork nie , German: "Orkney does not snore" , in the late 1980s and early 1990s . The title referred to the alleged “snoriness” of the place, which was previously claimed in the play on words Ook nie dorp nie, ook nie plaas never , in German: “Neither city nor farm”, whereby ook never sounds like Orkney . The greater range of leisure activities can actually be found in Klerksdorp.
Web links
- Tourism website for Orkney ( Memento from August 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (English; archive version)
Individual evidence
- ↑ 2011 census , accessed November 21, 2013
- ↑ Information on plak.co.za , accessed on June 1, 2011
- ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung online , accessed on June 1, 2011
- ↑ Quake measured 5.5: SA council. iol.co.za from August 5, 2014, accessed April 30, 2017
- ↑ Tourism website for Orkney ( Memento from August 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (English), accessed on June 1, 2011
- ↑ Orkney Airport on internationalaircharter.com (English), accessed June 1, 2011
- ^ IMDb database , accessed June 1, 2011