Our Towns

The Cullinan Conservancy is near Cullinan and Rayton.

Cullinan is well known for the Cullinan diamond. Cullinan is located in , approximately 35 km east of in . The small town is named after Sir Thomas Cullinan who discovered a rich diamond pipe in 1902. The famed Cullinan Diamond, the largest in the world at 3,106 carats (621 g), was discovered by Frederick Wells, surface manager of the Premier Diamond Mining Company on 25 June 1905. It was bought by the Transvaal government and presented to King Edward VII.

Rayton is a small town east of Pretoria and south of Cullinan. 'Rayton Junction', as it was first known, started out as a tin shack mining town on the farm Elandshoek.

During its boom days the town served the needs of thousands of diggers and prospecters working for the Schiller, Montrose and Dunmore mining companies. This mini diamond rush was sparked by Sir Thomas Cullinan's discovery of a kimberlite diamond pipe in the town since named after him.

The original Rayton Junction was laid out along a spur of the main NZASM railway line, which was completed in 1895 to connect the Republic of Transvaal's capital, Pretoria to the port in Delagoabay, Mozambique. Officials in the Montrose Diamond Mining Company did the town planning and named the hamlet after Lady Rachel Ray Williston, wife of the company's first manager, Colonel Balliston.

The town's first—and then only—brick building was the original magistrate’s office, which dates from this early time.

During the Second World War Italian prisoners of war were interned at Zonderwater just north of town, and massive military logistics and supply depots were established between Cullinan and Rayton.

After the war, the Stella Diamond Mining Company bought the land around the town and declared a peri-urban municipality with relatively cheap properties. Rayton's proximity to Pretoria's expanding eastern suburbs allowed steady growth from the 1970s into the latter part of the 20th century. Today, Rayton is a thriving town that serves the need of prison wardens at the nearby Zonderwater Prison, staff at the Cullinan diamond mine as well as the surrounding farming community, with the Willem Prinsloo agricultural museum celebrating the area's rich agricultural history on the farm . Many settled town residents have found employment in surrounding suburbs of Pretoria.

Source - Wikipedia