Did You Know?
The Post Boom in Mossel Bay is a historically significant site linked to the early maritime postal system of the Cape. It is associated with the milkwood tree (Sideroxylon inerme) near the shore, under which, according to tradition, early Portuguese explorers and later sailors left letters in a shoe or a pot, to be collected by passing ships. The first recorded use of this 'post office tree' dates to 1500, when a letter from a sailor of the fleet of Pedro Álvares Cabral was left there. This practice continued for centuries, making the tree one of the oldest known postal depots in South Africa. The site is now a national monument, and the tree is located within the grounds of the Bartolomeu Dias Museum Complex in Mossel Bay. The museum complex also houses a replica of the Padrão (stone cross) erected by the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias in 1488, marking his landing at what he called Angra de São Brás (Bay of Saint Blaise). The Post Boom itself is not a physical boom or pole, but rather the tree that served as a natural letter drop. The year 1500 is specifically tied to the earliest documented letter left there, not to the founding of a formal post office, which only emerged in the Cape Colony much later. The site reflects the early maritime communication methods used along the Cape sea route before permanent European settlement in 1652.
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