Heritage and Seahorses on Thesen Island

If there’s one place where the histories of the Knysna Forests and the Knysna Lagoon came together in the 19th and 20th Centuries, it’s Thesen Island – the largest island in the Knysna Estuary.

It was to this island that much of the timber harvested in the forest came, and from here that much of it was shipped off again to Cape Town and points east to feed the Cape Colony’s voracious appetite for wood.

Paarden Island

Known originally as ‘Paarden Island’ – because the earliest settlers kept their livestock here (‘paarden’ is the Dutch word for horses) – it was renamed after it was bought by the Thesen family, who came to Knysna from Norway in the 1860s, and went into business here as timber merchants and ship owners.

During their tenure, they established a sawmill, a shipyard, and an oyster farm on the island; became the first to load cargo from the government wharf after it was opened in 1883 (the Thesen Steamship Company’s 191-ton brig, Ambulant, took on 3,000 yellowwood railway sleepers bound for Cape Town); and were instrumental in creating the South Western Railway Company – the Coffee Pot steam train whose rail lines you can still see embedded in the deck of the jetty.

In 1974 the family sold the property and the sawmill to the Barlow Rand Group, which continued operations – focusing mostly on producing plywoods and veneers – until it in turn sold to the Thesen Island Development Company in the late 90s.

Residential Marina

With the closure of the sawmill (Thesen’s Boatyard had closed much earlier, in the mid-80s), the property was repurposed as a residential marina, and Thesen Island was carved into nineteen individual islands separated by canals.

Both the marina and Thesen Harbour Town were designed by the local firm, CMAI Architects.

Construction of the canals began in 2000, and all major civil works on the development were completed by 2005.

The shopping and entertainment side of the development – Thesen Harbour Town – was designed around existing historic buildings, which were preserved and repurposed as far as possible. These included:

• The Sawtooth Building – which originally housed the hardwood sawmill, and where you can now visit The Motorcycle Room, a private collection of popular, historic, and unusual motorbikes;
• The Boatshed, which is now occupied by The Lofts Boutique Hotel, Ile de Pain Restaurant, Bakery and Patisserie, and others; and
• The old power station – now The Turbine Boutique Hotel and Spa – where Thesen’s once generated power both for the sawmill and the village of Knysna (although Knysna only got its share when the turbines had spare capacity!).

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