Kimberley is a town in South Africa, and the capital of the Northern Cape. It uses Kimberley Airport.
In 1866, Erasmus Jacobs found a small white pebble on the banks of the Orange River, on the farm De Kalk, near Hopetown. The pebble turned out to be a 21.25 carat diamond. Later, an even larger 83.50 carat diamond was found on the slopes of Colesburg Kopje, and led to the first diamond rush into the area. As miners arrived in their thousands, the hill disappeared, and became known as the Big Hole. A town, New Rush, was formed in the area, renamed to Kimberley in 1873, after the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Earl of Kimberley.
The Kimberleys is also a region in the far north west of Western Australia.History
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