Progress, growth and development are good, and are what keep our province alive. And sometimes a simple picture is all that is needed to show how far we’ve come. Brian Downie captured our beautiful coastline as we know it today. Enjoy!
In 1964, the Beverly Hills Hotel joined the Oyster Box Hotel as two premier destinations in uMhlanga Rocks – which, back in the day, was a day’s outing from Durban. The Oyster Box Hotel had been converted from the Oyster Lodge in 1954 – enjoying the stunning companionship of the lighthouse which had been completed two years earlier.
Today, uMhlanga is a very different picture. It has witnessed explosive growth, making it not just the economic hub of KwaZulu-Natal, but also an all-year round popular holiday destination for locals and international tourists, as well as home to the many thousands who live here for the lifestyle offered along our east coast.
The catalyst for this new development was the decision by Old Mutual to launch the construction of Gateway Theatre of Shopping at uMhlanga Ridge in 1998. The rest, as they say, is history!
Brian Downie, a retired engineer living in Mount Edgecombe, has a library of uMhlanga videos worth watching. View some of the videos here…