In the early 1840s, John Vanderplank's ship, the Louisa, arrived in Durban. It was named after his fiancée who refused to leave England to live as a married couple in Tasmania. He planted black wattle as a windbreak but they flourished to the point where they were trees rather than shrubs. After the discovery of tannic acid for use in the tanning industry, the wattle industry grew. Wattle wood was also later found suitable for pulp and paper manufacturing.
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