History The basin has been inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous Bushmen and Khoi peoples. It was about 300 years ago when, after a land grant by the Dutch Colonial Government to a more or less equal number of Dutch and Huguenot settlers to settle the area, that the town of Tulbagh was founded. The town developed slowly and over time and in the period many notable examples of Cape Dutch architecture, Victorian and Edwardian houses and other buildings such as the Oude Kerk (1743) and the Oude Drosdy (the original colonial Magistrate's complex) were built. Many of these lovely buildings were destroyed in an earthquake in 1969 but quite a number survived the catastrophe. Church Street in Tulbagh is now graced by the largest number of original Cape-Dutch, Edwardian and Victorian national monuments in one street in South Africa and remains a major tourist attraction of the town to the present day.