Robertson is a town in the Western Cape Province of South Africa known as the valley of wine and roses, at the heart of the wine route – Route 62.
The town was founded in 1853 and named after the Scottish Dutch Reformed Church Minister, Dr William Robertson.
Situated in the fertile Robertson Valley, farming and wagon building were the town’s original industries. However, after the Second Anglo-Boer War of 1899, the wagon building industry collapsed when the railways took over the transport of all goods.
Robertson subsequently became famous for its ostrich farming, but this industry collapsed as well shortly after World War I and thus the farmers of the area turned to wine and fruit farming. Later, several successful racehorse stud farms were founded. Agriculture remains the mainstay of the town’s economy up to the present day.
