Richards Bay

Richards Bay is South Africa's largest harbour. It is situated on a 30 square kilometre lagoon of the Mhlatuze River, (forceful), on the northern coast of KwaZulu-Natal.

It began as a makeshift harbour that was set up by Commodore of the Cape, Sir Frederick Richards during the Boer War of 1879. In 1935 the Richards Bay Game Sanctuary was created to protect the ecology around the lagoon and later by 1943 it expanded into the Richards Bay Park. The town was laid-out on the shores of the lagoon in 1954 and proclaimed a town in 1969. In 1976 Richards Bay harbour was converted into a deep water harbour with railway and a oil/gas pipeline linking the port to Johannesburg. An aluminium smelter and fertilizer plant have been erected at the harbour. Titanium is mined from the sand dunes close to the lagoon.