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William Philip Irrigation Tunnel
Hankey district, Eastern Cape
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Click to view large map Coordinates: | At first irrigation-furrows leading from the Klein River were dug to irrigate the fields in the immediate vicinity of Hankey, but William PHILIP had a far more ambitious Plan in mind. About a kilometre from the missionary post a small, steep and rocky ridge forces the Gamtoos River to make a considerable horseshoe bend in a northerly direction and then to continue to the immediate west of the village. A valuable piece of arable land lay in this bend of the river, below the ridge. This was the piece of land which William Philip aimed at irrigating out of the Gamtoos. To be able to do this he decided to cut a tunnel through the ridge at the very spot where the river starts turning northwards and where the ridge was at its narrowest. This is one of the oldest irrigation works in the Eastern Cape. In 1842 William Philip, son of Dr. John Philip - founder of Hankey, and labourers from Hankey began cutting a tunnel approximately 94 metres in length through the hill, 88 m of which passes through solid rock. It cost £2 500, of which £500 was contributed by the London Missionary Society, the balance being recovered by means of a water-rate on the lands to be irrigated. William Philip made an accurate survey of the land and in 1842 the members of his congregation with himself as engineer, surveyor and supervisor tackled the task. Such faith did Philip have in his measurements that the parisioners started tunnelling from opposite sides of the ridge which is 90 metres high. The greater part of the tunnel passed through solid rock and progress was very slow because the instruments at their disposal — pick-axes, hammers and chisels — were very primitive. After almost a year the one group of labourers could hear the digging of the other. Then they continued all the more keenly until Jan Bosnian, one of William's most trusty old workers, pierced the wall with his pick-axe from the river's end. He was so excited that he ran back along the tunnel from force of habit and then across the ridge to Hankey to break the good news to William Philip. The latter has left us the following comment: "At about two o'clock on Tuesday night, 13th August, 1844, a shot was fired at my bedroom-window. I knew that the signal meant 'the tunnel is finished.' I looked out of the window and saw the messenger running toward the town, torch in hand and shouting all the time." Then pandemonium broke out in the village. The villagers shouted, wept, rejoiced and laughed confusedly. The church-bell was rung, fires were kindled, torches were carried everywhere, while pots and pans served as orchestral instruments. William Philip made the following comment on the completion of the project: "The measurements were far more accurate than I supposed, so that my first attempt in practical engineering was successful." On the evening of 13th August William went to let the water through. He opened the inlet only partially and even then the rush of water was unstoppable. It was, according to Philip, a little river which could turn the largest mill in the country. All along the ridges a canal was then dug from the outlet across the farms of Michael Ferreira and Van Rooyen to lead the water on to the grounds of the missionary post. It was completed in 1845, but William Philip did not enjoy the privilege of reaping the fruits of his labour. On the day of the inauguration of the tunnel he and John Fairbairn jr. were drowned in the Gamtoos River. In 1932 the tunnel and irrigation furrows were badly damaged by floods, but with Government aid they were restored and improved. In 1963 the Historical Monuments Commission recommended the proclamation of the tunnel as a historical monument. The area irrigated is some 301 hectares, owned by 45 irrigators, so that the average size of a holding is only about 7 hectares. Transcription of information board A short summary of the history of irrigation in the Gamtoos Valley. In 1829, James Wait, with 50 workmen started to dig an irrigation canal from the Kein River. The 3.5 miles [5 632m] canal was to convey water to Hankey, and more specifically to the lands below the current railway line. The work was completed within a year. A total of 400 acres were irrigated from this canal. In April 1843 William Philip, son of Dr John Philip of the London Missionary Society (LMS), commenced with the digging of an irrigation tunnel between the farms Venterhoek and Backhouse Hoek near Hankey. This was to be the first Irrigation tunnel in South Africa and later to be declared a national monument. Digging began on both sides at once with the objective of meeting in the middle. The tunnel was 6 feet high, 8 feet high and the total length was 260 yards. The work was completed 14th August 1844. The two sides met with an error margin of only 4 to 5 inches [101.6 to 127mm]! In 1 July 1845 William Philip, aged 31, and his 12 year old nephew, Johnny Fairbairn, tragically drowned while crossing the Gamtoos River. This happened on their way back to Hankey after inspections of the canal diggings at Backhouse Hoek. They were buried in the family graveyard below the current railway line near Hankey station. In 1850 the LMS erected a water mill, driven by the water from the tunnel. The mill remained in operation until 1932 when it was severely damaged by a flood. Although the tunnel was damaged by floods on several occasions, it remains in use until the completion of the Kouga Dam in 1970. At the beginning of the 1900's a scheme was proposed whereby diversion weirs would be built at a cost of R66462 for the irrigation of 3 600 hectares as a first approach. Irrigation boards had to be started so that the local community could accept responsibility for the construction and maintenance of the water distribution infrastructure. The first irrigation board was elected in 1912, two others quickly followed and a fourth some time later. The first of these schemes, the Reenen scheme, was opened in 1916. However, the floods of 1916 and 1932 caused sever damage and the weirs had to be rebuilt at great cost. The first Dam to impact on the valley, the Beervlei Dam, was constructed near Willowmore. Water storage was started 1956. The flood of 1961 showed how this dam could be used as a flood control structure, when potential Damage in the Gamtoos was greatly reduced. However, the water from this source had a substantial amount of silt and the salt load was also relatively high. Evaporation during storage increased the salt concentration, and salt sensitive crops irrigated with this water soon died or did not produce. The farmers of the Gamtoos Valley continued with submissions to parliament for an alternative dam. This eventually led to the approval in 1957 for the building of the Kouga Dam, which included an irrigation water distribution infrastructure. This dam would eventually replace all other irrigation infrastructure in the Vally [sic]. Construction commenced in 1959 and was completed in 1970. The Kouga Dam supplies water to 7420 hectares of land in the Vally [sic], Nelson Mandela Bay and maintained by the Gamtoos Irrigation Board - recent winner of a National Water Conservation and Water Demand Management award. (SESA vol 5: 423-424; Oberholster 1972: 130-131) All truncated references not fully cited below are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon. References:
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