21-501: Lower Vaal WMA , or Lower Vaal Water Management Area (coded: 10) , includes the following major rivers: the Harts River , Molopo River and Vaal River , and covers the following Dams: Tertiary drainage regions C31 to C33, C91, C92 (excluding quaternary catchment C92C), D41 (excluding quaternary catchment D41A), and quaternary catchments D73A and portions of D42C, D42D, D73B, D73C, D73D and D73E. The western boundary of this area runs from
42-606: A gigantic tufa flow coming off the dolomitic bedrock of the Kalahari escarpment. The Taung Child is among the most important early human fossils ever discovered. It was the first hominid to be discovered in Africa , a species later named Australopithecus africanus , supporting Charles Darwin 's concepts that the closest living relatives of humans are the African apes . It furthermore demonstrated significant differences between reality and
63-605: Is a Ramsar wetland site . The pan is 11 km long and 3.5 km wide, and it is named either after Frederick Hugh Barber FRGS, who hunted along the Harts River in 1875, or after the barbel ( baber in the Afrikaans language), a species of catfish found in South African rivers. In 1913, Jan Christiaan Smuts , who owned a farm near the southern end of the pan, provided the labour and his foreman, Mr M. S. Basson, supervised
84-411: Is located some 60 km northwest of Kimberley on the river. It is currently being mined at a rate of 3000 tonnes per month by the company Dwyka Diamonds Limited. Noble Minerals , in cooperation with the local Ba-Ga-Maidi tribe has set up an operation to exploit the alluvial diamonds within 20 square kilometres of diamantiferous gravels of the river system, near Taung. Most of the fish found in
105-583: The Barberspan Bird Sanctuary , making it a popular birding spot, probably the finest in South Africa. Seven endangered bird species and two endangered mammal species occur here. Barberspan also supports a rich plankton community. (Ramsar, 1994). Barberspan is also the venue for off-road vehicle rallies , like the Barberspan 500 . There is a hotel, self-catering accommodation and camping facilities on
126-664: The Depression . Here water drawn from both the Vaal and the Harts rivers provide water to intensively irrigate numerous smallholdings through a system of canals in an otherwise dry area of the country, supporting towns such as Jan Kempdorp and Hartswater . Around the northern part of the Scheme lie the settlements of Pampierstad , Motsweding , Mokgareng , Manthestad and Taung , all with mostly Tswana speaking residents. Taung became famous after
147-680: The Witwatersrand and flows for 320 km (about 200 miles) in a southwesterly direction, mostly through very flat areas of the North West and Northern Cape Provinces before flowing into the Vaal River about 100 km above the confluence of that river with the Orange River. The Little Harts River which rises near Coligny joins the Great Harts River , which rises near Lichtenburg, to form
168-440: The type specimen of Australopithecus africanus after he received a shipment of mostly fossil baboons , but also containing the skull and face of the child. Surprisingly, it would be many years before Dart would visit Taung to determine the exact location of the find. By that time, lime-mining had destroyed much of the area. Later in-situ excavations were conducted under the direction of Phillip Tobias and Jeffrey McKee of
189-500: The Harts River are introduced species , except in the area of Barberspan , where indigenous species can be found. It was declared a nature reserve in 1949. Near the towns of Sannieshof and Delareyville , the river is connected to Barberspan (26°35' S 25°35' E) 26°35′S 25°35′E / 26.583°S 25.583°E / -26.583; 25.583 , which lies partially inside the Barberspan Nature Reserve and
210-592: The University of the Witwatersrand, who worked at the site from approximately 1989 until 1993. Although they failed to find additional hominid specimens, they did recover many important fossil baboons and increased the understanding of the Taung geology and taphonomy significantly. Unlike the dolomitic caves near Johannesburg , South Africa and the site of Makapansgat , the Taung fossil sites are found in caves formed in
231-479: The banks of the river. Wenzel Dam , just north of the town on the river, has been developed into a holiday resort. Around 1850, a dam was built in the river next to Dikgatlong , but it was washed away during a flood in 1856. Near the confluence of the Harts and Vaal Rivers at Delportshoop a major irrigation system, the Vaal-Harts Scheme was set up in 1933 as part of the national reconstruction effort after
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#1733092627057252-641: The confluence of the Kuruman River with the Molopo River along the watershed between quaternary catchments D42C and D42D until it meets the boundary of the Kalahari East Water Board. The Water Management Area boundary then follows this Water Board boundary to a point, west of the Langberge, 19 kilometres west of Beeshoek, near Postmasburg . The Water Management Area boundary then runs South East to meet
273-658: The digging of a channel which diverted water from the Harts River into the pan, which lies about 9 m lower than the river. The area is so flat that the Harts River now pushes enough water into Barberspan during the rainy season to last through the dry winter months, where previously the pan used to dry up during the dry season. This was ecologically important, since the pan now became a large perennial water body in an area of otherwise seasonal pans and vleis . It became an oasis for birds (especially water fowl ) which use it for feeding, drinking, roosting, moulting and breeding. Up to 20,000 birds of more than 320 species can be seen at
294-678: The discovery of the skull of the so-called Taung Child in a lime quarry 14 km west of the town. The quarry is not in use anymore and is now the Taung Heritage Site and open to the public. To the west of the town, the Taung Dam was built in the Harts River. Upstream of the dam some rock engravings can be seen. On 31 March 1902, during the final months of the Second Boer War , the Battle of Harts River , also known as "Battle of Boschbult",
315-576: The fake skull of a proposed human ancestor from England known as the Piltdown Man or Eoanthropus . The little skull is hypothesized to be from an approximately three- to three-and-a-half-year-old child. The cast of the brain is preserved by the filling of the skull with limestone breccia . The skull is housed at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg , South Africa . The Taung Child
336-698: The largest river in South Africa ). Its source is in the North West Province , but the greater part of its basin is located in the Northern Cape Province , which it enters a few kilometers downstream from the Taung Dam . The Harts forms a natural boundary for the Ghaap Plateau , located between the Harts River and the Kuruman Hills . It rises near Lichtenburg on the far southwestern slopes of
357-653: The main river. Near Taung, the Dry Harts River , a seasonal river with its headwaters in the Vryburg area, also joins it. The river is characterised by highly intermittent runoff, but is regulated to optimise water usage. At Taung the Tswana referred to the Harts River as the Noka (meaning River) Kolong. Further downstream, the town of Schweizer-Reneke (founded in October 1888) lies on
378-623: The site. Taung Taung is a small town situated in the North West Province of South Africa . The name means place of the lion and was named after Tau, the Chief of the Legoya or Bataung people. Tau is the Tswana word for lion . In 1924, a skull (later named the Taung Child ) was discovered by a quarry -worker in the nearby Buxton- limestone quarry. It was described by Raymond Dart in 1925 as
399-564: The watershed between quaternary catchments D73A and D73B. The boundary then follows this watershed, and that between D73A and D71B, until it meets the watershed of tertiary catchment C92. Harts River The Harts River ( Afrikaans : Hartsrivier ) is a northern tributary of the Vaal River , which in turn is the largest tributary of the Orange River (also known as the Gariep River ,
420-403: Was at first proposed to have been killed by other hominids as part of Raymond Dart's Osteo-Dento-Keratic Culture hypothesis. However, later work by C.K. "Bob" Brain demonstrated that the child was probably killed by some sort of mammalian carnivore such as a leopard . Recently, however, studies of the associated baboons by Ron Clarke and Lee Berger , and identification of specific marks on
441-657: Was fought between the Boers and the British forces near the confluence of the Harts River and the Brak Spruit , one of its dry tributaries. The battle was a British defeat and was also the second bloodiest day of that war for the Canadian forces , who fought on the British side. Alluvial diamond mining still occurs in ancient river beds within the Harts River catchment area. The Newlands Mine
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