History
Thesen Island was the site of a timber processing plant for more than eighty years. By the early 90's there was growing community concern about the environmental and industrial pollution, noise and traffic caused by the factory's activities and in 1991 CMAI Architects and Town Planners with Chris Mulder at the helm, proposed a complete redevelopment of the island.
The Knysna River estuary is one of the most sensitive ecosystems in the country and the initial planning took four years. The land had to be rezoned. After a further four years of research and additional planning, approval was finally granted in 1999 - but with over one hundred strict and complex conditions covering ecological, architectural, engineering, aesthetic, social and cultural criteria. In all, from concept to approval ten years passed involving twenty five iterations of the master plan!
Back then in early 2000, when prospective owners saw Thesen Islands for the first time, they were confronted with a dismal sight. Derelict old buildings, vast dumps, polluted salt marshes and abandoned, rusting machinery littered the 90 hectare wasteland. The unconstructed waterways were just ink-blue arteries on the master plan. Visitors were subjected to a jolting, off road, bush-strewn ride in a wheezing old four by four. Most of the stands were simply unapproachable and identifiable only on the plan. Many of these early visitors were convinced that making the island habitable - let alone a luxury marina - was impossible.
But a significant minority pictured Chris Mulder's vision for Thesen Islands and purchased stands in the waterlogged, toxic swamps. Within five short years those far-sighted investors were handsomely rewarded.
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