During the time of the Dutch East India tenure at the Cape, the "Kompagnie" as it was known, despatched their representatives into the interior in order to trade with the local Khoi people who inhabited these areas and to secure provisions such as timber from the forests. One of the well-known Khoi chiefs whom they traded with was Hessaqwas.

In 1725, Jan Loots, one of the first 5 Heemraden of the Drostdy held "de Klippe Rivier gelegen aan de Bruintjies Rivier" on loan. This was the beginning of the story of Klippe Rivier, which originally stretched from the Bruintjies River in the west to the Langeberg Mountains in the East.