A Dutch East India Company expedition under Jan van Riebeeck arrives in Table Bay
Ships of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) under Jan van Riebeeck anchored in Table Bay to set up a supply station on land long used by Khoekhoe communities. It was the start of a permanent colonial settlement.
Photo: Charles Davidson Bell · Public domain
On 6 April 1652 Jan van Riebeeck arrived in Table Bay with ships of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). His orders were to build a fort and set up a station that would supply the Company's ships with fresh water, meat and vegetables. A small fort of earth and timber was put up near the beach, east of today's Adderley Street, close to where a freshwater stream reached the sea.
The bay was not empty land. Khoekhoe communities lived and grazed cattle around it and had traded with passing European ships for decades. Autshumao, who had sailed to Java in the 1630s, acted as an interpreter, and at first the Dutch depended on bartering for Khoekhoe cattle.
In 1657 the Company gave farmland along the Liesbeek River to former employees. Khoekhoe groups lost grazing and water, and the first Khoekhoe-Dutch war followed in 1659 to 1660.
Why it matters
The supply station grew into Cape Town and the Cape Colony. For Khoekhoe communities it began a long loss of land, water and independence.
- Source: Establishment of the Cape and its impact on Khoikhoi and Dutch, South African History Online · Heritage Month: The Khoi encountered Europeans long before Van Riebeeck, UCT News (2021) · Jan van Riebeeck, South African History Online · Castle of Good Hope, Castle Street, Cape Town, South African History Online · N. M. Botha, The Gateway of tomorrow: modernist town planning on Cape Town's Foreshore 1930-70 (UCT, 2013)
Where it happened
Landing area and first fort, near today's Grand Parade
The expedition came ashore and built its first fort near the beach, east of today's Adderley Street, around the area of the Grand Parade. The exact spot is not marked. The 1652 shoreline ran roughly along today's Strand Street: the Foreshore to the north was reclaimed from the sea from the late 1930s, so this area now lies well inland.
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Where it happened Approximate
Landing area and first fort, near today's Grand Parade
The expedition came ashore and built its first fort near the beach, east of today's Adderley Street, around the area of the Grand Parade. The exact spot is not marked. The 1652 shoreline ran roughly along today's Strand Street: the Foreshore to the north was reclaimed from the sea from the late 1930s, so this area now lies well inland.
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Context Area
Table Bay anchorage
The ships anchored in Table Bay off the shore of Table Valley. No exact anchorage point is recorded in the sources used, so the bay is shown as a broad area.
