Behind bars: crime, punishment and the prisoners who tried to escape
Where gold flowed, crime followed and Barberton’s jail became one of the town’s first lines of defence against chaos.
Echoes in the mountains: life and loss in the former asbestos town of Msauli
For many former residents, growing up in Msauli or Diepgezet meant living in a place where everyone knew one another.
Msauli, the rise and fall of an asbestos town
A forgotten town in the hills near Barberton once housed a thriving community built around asbestos mining. Today, Msauli stands silent, but its stories are far from gone.
Jamestown: The forgotten gold camp that came before Barberton
Before Barberton became a booming gold-rush town, there was Jamestown, a rough, fever-ridden diggers’ camp where some of the valley’s first gold was found. Today it has almost vanished from memory, but its story marks the true beginning of the Barberton goldfields.
Life beyond the dust and danger in the early mining town of Barberton
Today, echoes of that vibrant past remain in heritage buildings, local traditions, and the stories still shared across generations, because even in the toughest of times, Barberton’s people understood, and still understand, the value of laughter and music.
The cableway: Barberton’s forgotten link to Havelock Mine
For more than 60 years, asbestos travelled through the sky from Havelock Mine to our railway station. Here is the remarkable story behind the pylons many of us remember following into the mountains.
Nukain Mabuza: the artist who painted the rocks of Barberton
It was here, among granite boulders and Lowveld bush, that self‑taught artist Nukain Mabuza created what would later become known as the ‘Painted Rock Garden of Revolver Creek’.