Ibequa

The Breede River valley lies beyond the mountain barrier east of the Cape. San hunters and Khoekhoe livestock keepers lived here before colonial farms spread into the valley. The Khoekhoe traded livestock with the settlers, while the smallpox epidemic of 1713 devastated their communities. In 1818 the Cape government purchased farms in the valley for a new administrative centre. The town of Worcester was formally established in 1820, and building plots were sold on its founding day.