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Due to the lack of any kind of written records, it is not known exactly when the first Europeans settled in the area but it could have been around the time that gold was first discovered in Johannesburg (1870?). Most of what we do know comes from accounts passed on by generations of residents.
In the latter part of the 19th century the district was composed of enormous farms. In the way that such matters were executed in those times, a farm's extent was measured by the distance a horse could walk in one day. This was about 3000 morgan, or 6 300 acres. There were no boundary fences and the law forbade any subdivision, except where portions were left to family members. Probably due to the lack of entertainment as much as any other reason, families were extremely large, and this often led to problems when the head of the family passed away. After the death of President Paul Kruger early in the last century, this statute fell away--sort of. As the population began to increase, people realised that land was a very valuable commodity, and thus began the division of these huge farms into the 5, 10 and 20 acre plots that most of us live on today. However, the law pronounced that only 50% of any one farm could be subdivided--the other half becoming a commonage on which the people who had bought the land parcels could graze their livestock. To this day, the area we still know as the common allows any resident to use that land for this purpose. (See more about this later).
The farm Faroasfontein plays a central role in the development of the area. It covered the boundaries we know today as The Common, the Weilbach's farm (the dairy), Homestead Apple Orchards, Golf View and Ohenimuri golf course.
It was originally owned by a Mr Brits. For many years it was divided by the main Cape Town--Johannesburg road, which today is the Old Vereeniging Road. The main house was used as one of the overnight stops for coaches travelling to Johannesburg. Mr Brits sold the
farm to Jan Daniel Weilbach (descendants of which now own the dairy), who sold the farm to a Mr Butler (when?) In turn, this was then sold to Mr Arthur Walker in 1918--from whom the area got its name. As mentioned previously, Mr Walker, after his apple growing venture was disbanded, had the idea of dividing the farm into parcels of land and selling them as Homestead Apple Orchards, (click advert on right). As an added incentive, any would-be purchaser would be able to graze his or her livestock on the common.
Development proper started in HAO in 1928, although some of the older homes date from the turn of the last century. Mrs Elizabeth Cronje has been living in the same house in 9th Avenue, Apple Orchards since 1945. She and her husband, who had returned from fighting in Egypt, enlisted the help of Italian prisoner's of war to enlarge the small house they had bought. These were paid 1 Shilling a day by the family and the same amount by the government. They were repatriated in 1946. At that time there was no electricity nor municipal water.