Tuys De Wet's Early Years In Oranjemund!

[Michael Alexander]

Tuys De Wet handed me an old VHS video Tape a few months ago. I eventually got around to converting the tape to my computer.

It would appear some of the clips are from the 50's, 60's and early 70's.

The quality is not the greatest , but viewable. The clips were recorded in silent mode and I have left them like that.

The clips have been converted to mp4 format and are rather large in size averaging 30-50 megs a pop. So unless you are on unlimited bandwith , I would urge caution when downloading the files as you will be over your monthly quicker than normal.

I am an amutuer at video editing, I have tried to break the tape up into smaller specific pieces, but you will find the last frames being from the following video.

The clips cover a vast array of Oranjemund life from the era 50's-70's. The first group of clip include the building of the 2nd bridge across the river, Horse Racing at the Mule Derby, Ovambo Sports Day, Cocopan trains, Bedrock Stripping, Sailing down at the Yacht Club....

Thanks to Tuys for allowing me to upload the clips and I will post more as I get time to convert from VHS to PC.....

TO VIEW THESE CLIPS, RIGHT CLICK ON THE LINK AND CHOOSE "Save Link As" and save the clip to your PC..

The first  clip shows a few of the old Cat machines stripping and a few bedrock sweepers looking for diamonds....


DOWNLOAD LINK: http://www.oranjemundonline.com/video/MiningandBedrockSweeping.mp4

SIZE: 15 Megs

[Michael Alexander]

Clip two, is one of my favourites and shows the actual construction of the Oppenheimer Bridge. This was the 2nd bridge being constructed across the Orange River as the first bridge was too low. This is interesting history that made Oranjemund.

The desert behind Swartkops Hill seems "fuller" back then....

DOWNLOAD LINK: http://www.oranjemundonline.com/video/BuildingtheBridge.mp4

SIZE: 41megs

[Michael Alexander]

My 2nd Favourite Clip, real live footage of the Cocopan rail network that the mine used before the big haul trucks were introduced. I recall seeing these tracks stretching from the mine into the west side of the town by the magazine as a kid in the 70's, but I never saw any trains running. So it was indeed an absolute delight to see the following footage.

The footage includes the trains and a plant which I assume to be 4 Plant....

DOWNLOAD LINK: http://www.oranjemundonline.com/video/PlantandCocopans.mp4

SIZE: 24 megs

[Michael Alexander]

Here's a lekker one for all you old sailors from the Cormorant Yacht Club's heydays.... back in the day when people still knew how to waterski .....

DOWNLOAD LINK: http://www.oranjemundonline.com/video/YachtClubDays.mp4

SIZE: 11.40megs

[Michael Alexander]

Remember the days when you could take the family for an outing to Luderitz on the company bus? Well this clip is from such a trip, using the big red CDM bus using the road through the mine to Kolmanskop. The clip shows a bit of the route, Luderitz, Diaz Point and some wild springboks crossing the road....


DOWNLOAD LINK: http://www.oranjemundonline.com/video/WildSpringboksandatriptoLuderitz.mp4

SIZE: 47.99 megs

[Michael Alexander]

Here's an interesting clip taken up at the newly built Uubvley hostel. Some of you will recall the Bogenfels Arch built into the pond with the statue of a lady next to it.....


DOWNLOAD LINK: http://www.oranjemundonline.com/video/TheBogenfelsPondatUubvley.mp4

SIZE: 16.97 Megs

[Michael Alexander]

The following clip shows a group visiting the Old German Mines, Stauchlager, Pomona and Bogenfels. A visit to the seal colony also.

DOWNLOAD LINK: http://www.oranjemundonline.com/video/SealsGermanMines.mp4

SIZE: 60 megs

[Michael Alexander]

It was a bit short, but this clip will be of interest to those of you that either worked with the MDC or are interested in the marine mining history off the Namibian Coast, short and not good quality...

DOWNLOAD LINK: http://www.oranjemundonline.com/video/MDC.mp4

SIZE: 12 megs

[Michael Alexander]

I never got see this personally, but believe it was big back in the day..... The Ovambo Sports day... what was even more impressive for me to see, was here was actual footage of "black" history in Oranjemund, something that was not well documented back in those political days....

DOWNLOAD LINK: http://www.oranjemundonline.com/video/OvamboSportsDay.mp4

SIZE: 25 megs

[Michael Alexander]

This clip for me was interesting as I had always thought that the jockeys at the mule derby were coloured folk from Beauvallon. Note the east wind blowing in the tree's in the background..... this clip shows the horses, a race and some farm types standing in the middle of the track....

DOWNLOAD LINK: http://www.oranjemundonline.com/video/MuleDerbyDays.mp4

SIZE: 15.80 megs

[Michael Alexander]

Thanks again to Tuys De Wet for sharing his video with us.... Please feel free to leave your comments and if any of you have similar video, please let us get a copy of it....

I will post more video next week.... so be sure to keep an eye on this topic...

Enjoy your weekend...

MIke

[barb (Fry)]

 
found a link in my spam folder about these video's - lol - what a treat

[Gerrit Venter]

Hi Mike
Most of these videos were taken 50+ years ago
I remember the building of the bridge very well and those red busses (I think there were 3) took you about everywhere - Rugby in Alex and Athletics in Springbok and Nababeep (hot as hell) and Luderitz to catch the train to go to Walvisbaai for army training of get spares for your bicycle at Pupkewitz

Thanks for the memories Tuys. ( they were our neighbours)

Gerrit Venter

[SandyB]

Not playing  for me ,, get black screen after download

[Bob Molloy]

Worse, I can only download the code which then freezes my screen, requiring me to power down to ditch it before starting up again.
I run Windows 7 XP. Any fixes, anybody?