Walkerville

Walkerville lies on the R82, approximately 35 km south of Johannesburg, in the Midvaal Local Municipality of the Sedibeng District. It is not a formal town with a grid and a high street. It is a belt of smallholdings and agricultural properties that has gathered enough identity to be its own place. The first settlers in the area were Voortrekkers in the late 1830s. The farm Hartzenbergfontein changed hands from the 1850s onward and the land was eventually subdivided among nine children after the death of Hendrik Greyling in 1879. The modern smallholding community grew from that agricultural base.

What draws people to Walkerville today is a combination of things that are genuinely hard to find this close to Johannesburg. There are nurseries here, proper ones, the kind where serious gardeners come to find plants they cannot track down in city garden centres. The Field Berry Farm runs a Raspberry Festival from January to April on weekends, with pick-your-own raspberries, food stalls, and a jungle gym for children. The Walkerville Farmer's Market runs every Saturday morning, with fresh produce, handmade goods, baked items, and a food court. It is the kind of market that has a local following rather than a tourist one, which makes it more interesting to visit.

The landscape around Walkerville is open Highveld with the Suikerbosrand hills visible on the horizon to the east. The Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve itself is accessible from this direction, adding a hiking and wildlife dimension to the area. Kliprivier, a small neighbouring settlement, is the closest village. The R82 connects south toward Vereeniging and north directly into Johannesburg.

Walkerville does not try to be a destination. It is a place where people who want space and a country rhythm have chosen to settle, and where the amenities that have grown up around them, nurseries, a market, berry farms, reflect that choice. It is an honest and pleasant stop for anyone driving the R82 south of Johannesburg.