Security Horse Patrols

[Clive Symes]

Anyone remember these, in the 1950's Ovambo Security guards used to patrol the perimiter fence between the town and the mine. I remember running into the desert & catching a ride  with these guys, and being dropped off at the stables. Feeding the horses etc.

[Michael Alexander]

Clive , over on the main site, by the Gazette page, the edition 24th october 1986, had quite a few articles by 
Honeyborne about the old days and I remember reading somewhere there about the horse police patrols...

mike

[Robert Bruce]

I recall some photos of the police on camels.

[Michael Alexander]

Rob, you're right, it was camel's and not horses. I was confused with the article of the Hohenfels ghost house where the police patrol would come by and stop for tea with the 2 ladies who stayed there at that time, the story mentions horse riders....

???

[Clive Symes]

Security used to have Horses stabled at the entrance to town, where the Four water resevoirs are located now, the piggeries were also close by.
Used to feed the horses dried bread and carrots, and the Ovambo Security ( DD Boys)  guards used to patrol the perimiter fence around town.

The Camels were used as mentioned, for the long range patrols into the desert, and I think these stopped alltogether in the late 1940's.

On horse back it only took an hour or so to ride the fence line around town ( This was in 1955 or so) On the mine when my dad arrived (1952)they had very few vehicles and often used mules

[Michael Alexander]

I saw on an old aerial pic of the town,. circa 1960, a little boom gate about 100m outside the treeline enterance to town, was this in actual fact a boom? who was there? and what was the purpose? When did get removed? When were the inhabitants of Omund first allowed to head down to the river mouth?

[Robert Bruce]

I saw on an old aerial pic of the town,. circa 1960, a little boom gate about 100m outside the treeline enterance to town, was this in actual fact a boom? who was there? and what was the purpose? When did get removed? When were the inhabitants of Omund first allowed to head down to the river mouth?

So many questions, so little time to answer

[Bob Molloy]

Discovered the query when idly browsing the site recently. Hope not too many people died off while waiting for the answer.

The town gate was indeed an boom type entrance, first built in 1951. It was never used as a security entrance as only top management had vehicles in those days and few people chose to walk to the river.
With the opening of the first nine hole golf course in '52 there was a steady stream of weekend visitors to the course and to picnics on the beach. Later the yacht club became a big big focal point.
The gate was never closed and largely ignored for most of its life.