RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY REVIEWS PAGE 19
In 1741, when Simon’ s Bay( now Simon’ s Town) was declared the official winter anchorage for The Cape, Steenberg was a natural overnight spot for the wagon drivers who travelled between False Bay and the nascent city of Cape Town over the Ou Kaapse Weg, so it enjoyed its first incarnation as a hotel.
The Russouws must have done well because Frederik’ s son, Nicolaas, added the beautiful and ornate gable to the farmhouse – a sure sign that they were prospering.
In 1842, the property was sold to close relative Johannes Adriaan Louw, whose descendants kept the farm until 1990 when it was bought by Johannesburg Consolidated Investments( JCI) to be developed into what it is today.
And Steenberg Estate certainly has it all; a fabulous hotel, a magnificent 18-hole golf course, award-winning restaurant and a residential estate of 225 households. With many of the early investors still owning property on the estate, there is a low sales turnover, and the property prices reflect this exclusivity. Playing the 18-hole course at Steenberg is on many a golfer’ s bucket list, and at any given time there is a membership waiting list.
The course is 20 years old, so Steenberg is embarking on a major greens resurfacing and bunker upgrade that will cost around R 5 million. The new automated water-wise irrigation system will be enhanced by the Blue Planet bio-remediation programme and effluent water treatment project on the estate. This revolutionary technology uses specific bacterial formulations to enhance biological breakdown of nutrients.“ The first treatment was the rehabilitation of the 18th dam where we are eliminating the bottom sludge,” says Heiner Dominick, MD of BluePlanet. This, he explained, has eliminated odour when irrigating, and improved the water quality by optimising the nitrification cycle, and so reducing suspended solids and dissolved nutrients. The system has been widely used in agriculture, aquaculture and environmental remediation, but Steenberg will be the first residential estate to install it.
As well as the now much-improved golf course, the estate features everything one would expect at this level. The houses are all carefully placed for views and privacy, and the superdiscreet state-of-the art security allows home owners to enjoy all the benefits of living on the oldest farm in Constantia with complete peace of mind. catharina’ s restaurant
And what of Catharina? She would almost certainly not recognise the farm but her memory lives on in Steenberg’ s flagship restaurant, Catharina’ s. And it’ s decorated with delicate origami swans that float gently in the breeze, and hark back to her initial wonder at first laying eyes on this beautiful piece of land.
www. steenberggolfclub. co. za