Built with love in memory of Mike Fletcher - he'd have loved this place.
The story of Malgas
A name and a mix-up
Local tradition says Malagas took its name from a Khoikhoi chief who once ruled this stretch of the Breede. It was later shortened to Malgas, partly so the mail stopped ending up in Málaga, Spain.
1850s: a busy river port
Around 1850 the trading firm Barry & Nephews bought the farm and turned it into one of the region's most important trading posts. Tobias Herholdt arrived in 1858 as postmaster, later becoming Justice of the Peace and Sheriff.
The steamer SS Kadie
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Built on Scotland's River Clyde, the 158-ton steamer arrived in 1859 and ran upriver to Malgas in about two and a half hours, carrying wool, grain, brandy, aloe juice and ostrich feathers. Her loss in November 1865 ended the town's trading heyday.
The church and the 1906 flood
The Dutch Reformed church was completed in 1856, built by Jacob Taljaard with help from Thomas Barry. In 1906 a great flood put two metres of water through it, destroying the pulpit Bible and much of its history.
The famous pont
For generations, cars crossed the Breede on a pont pulled by hand along a cable, the last of its kind in South Africa. Since December 2020 a new motorised pont does the job (when it works!), free of charge, from 06:00 to 18:00 daily.
Malgas today
A peaceful riverside hamlet with blue cranes in the fields, fish eagles overhead and the Breede at your feet. It's also home to The Old Oke Riverhouse, the first container home in Malgas.