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Soon after Solitaire
Guest Farm Desert Ranch opened they were
visited by Mrs Liebenberg, a former
resident. Mrs Liebenberg very kindly wrote a
letter describing the farm’s history and
also provided some photographs.
‘My name is Beulah Marie Liebenberg
– formally van Coller.
This is, to the best of my
recollection and, with the
co-operation of my sisters; Augusta
and Antoinette, the true history of
the farm “Solitaire”.
My parents Willem Christoffel and
Elsie Sophia van Coller were both
school teachers. From 1939 to 1945
my father was a captain in the South
African Air Force and was stationed
at 21 Squadron in Johannesburg in an
administrative capacity. In 1946 the
family moved to the then South West
Africa and farmed with Karakul sheep
on the farm Koireb to the South of
Solitaire.  I was 10 and Augusta was
7 years old at the time.
My youngest sister, Antoinette, was born in 1947 and soon after (I
think it was in 1948), my
father bought 33,000
hectares of land from
the South West
Administration. This was a
totally undeveloped tract of
land situated between Ababis
to the North and Koireb to
the South and was called
Areb. He later sold 10,000
hectares to the west. My
mother named the farm
“Solitaire” meaning “a
diamond set all by itself’,
(and she also meant “a very
solitary or lonely place’)
thus combining the
definition of being unique
or one of a kind and very
precious but solitary place.
My mother also laid out the
name in white washed stones
on the base of a koppie to
the south of the present
shop.
When we moved there the farm
had no house, no fences and
no water. We lived in a
caravan (which my father had
built in the back yard of
our home in Johannesburg),
and my father built a 2 room
cottage on the farm where
the homestead was built
later. Water was brought
in on a truck in 44 gallon
drums
 from Swartkops until
the first borehole
(producing water) was sunk
near the river close to the
present Guest Lodge. That
was where the homestead was
built and and the shop was
also there originally .
My father also built the
stone kraal near the house
as well as the dam wall
across the river bed. When
the farm was sold to my
father it had been declared
“waterless” but over the
years my father drilled 5
boreholes producing water: 2
at the farmhouse, 1 at the
present shop, 1 to the West
and 1 to the North toward
Ababis. There were also
innumerable boreholes sunk
that were dry.
When the shop was moved to
its present position, my
father built a shop with a
large stoep in front,
 a
petrol pump was installed
and, eventually a small
church was built.
A Dutch Reformed minister
from Maltahohe came out to
Solitaire every 3 months and
a weekend of services
ensued. My mother played
the organ and rehearsed the
choir. The shop was also the
local Post Office and weekly
postbags were delivered .
Later a small flat was also
built. A shortwave radio was
installed and an airstrip
laid out.
In 1968 my parents were
divorced and, soon after, my
father sold Solitaire to a
Mr Maritz, who was a retired
magistrate from Luderitz.’
Date 7th June 2004
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