Carolina is an urban-rural area situated on the

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

route ( R33 and

R38 The ''R.38'' class (also known as the ''A'' class) of rigid airships was designed for Britain's Royal Navy during the final months of the First World War, intended for long-range patrol duties over the North Sea. Four similar airships were ...

) in the

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

. The town lies in the grass and wetlands region of Mpumalanga at 1700 meters above sea level. It is a mixed farming and small-scale

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

- and precious-stone-mining community.

History

Carolina was established by Cornelius Johannes Coetzee as a permanent outspan for wagons when

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

was discovered in 1883 in Barberton. The town of Carolina was proclaimed on 15 June 1886 and named after his wife Magdalena Carolina Smit. The town was built on portions of the farms Groenvlei and Goedehoop and the first stands were sold in 1883. Carolina was rebuilt after it was razed in 1900 during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the So ...

. A few examples of sandstone architecture are still to be found among Carolina's public buildings. The sandstone Grobler Bridge which crosses the

Komati River The Komati River, also known as the Inkomati River or Incomati River (in Mozambique, from Portuguese Rio Incomati), is a river in South Africa, Eswatini and Mozambique. Originating in north-western Eswatini, it is joined by the Crocodile R ...

on the present R36 route to

Machadodorp Machadodorp, also known by its official name eNtokozweni, is a small town situated on the N4 road, near the edge of the escarpment in the Mpumalanga province, South Africa. The Elands River runs through the town. There is a natural radioactive ...

was opened for traffic in 1897. It was named after Johannes Lodewikus Grobler. The cornerstone of the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...

was laid by Commandant General

Piet Joubert Petrus Jacobus Joubert (20 January 1831 – 28 March 1900), better known as Piet Joubert, was Commandant-General of the South African Republic from 1880 to 1900. He also served as Vice-President to Paul Kruger from 1881 - 1883. He served in Fir ...

in October 1888. This building was severely damaged during the

and used as a horse stable by British troops. The Ermelo Railway Company completed the Ermelo–Carolina–Machadodorp railway line in 1907. This placed Carolina on the trade route with Swaziland (now Eswatini). The

and associated Komati Gorge are situated in the vicinity of Carolina. The very big township of

Silobela Silobela is an agricultural village in Kwekwe District in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. It is located about west of Kwekwe town, north-west of Gweru town, and bordering Nkayi on the west. Background Most of the inhabitants of Silobela ...

, with its various sections, is situated nearby. Silobela is populated by mostly Swati-speaking people, though there are also Zulus, Ndebeles and a small number of Tsonga people.

References

Populated places in the Albert Luthuli Local Municipality {{Mpumalanga-geo-stub