Originally the early residents of Witbank area were mainly stock farmers as there was no market for agricultural produce. Wool was transported once a year by ox-wagon to Durban where it was sold. Crops were restricted to the needs of the local families. Early travelers in the area,such as Thomas Baines,as far back as 1872 mentioned the coal used by local residents as fuel. Evidence has also been found that at first the Black man, and later the Voortrekkers, mined coal from the outcrop,especially in the riverbeds, and transported it by ox-wagon to the Witwatersrand. It is often said that the Catholic Church entered the Transvaal through gates of gold and diamonds and one may add also coal!It was only after the freedom of Catholic worship was granted in the South African Republic in 1870 that some priests gradually began to visit and settle at Pretoria in order to minister to the needs of the Catholics there. But before the comercial mining of coal,Witbank was nothing more than a stock farming region which began to develop agricultural produce in order to supply the passing travellers on their way to the main towns of Pigrims Rest and Barberton where gold had been discovered in 1874. In 1875,a priest,Father Andrew Walshe OMI was sent to Pilgrims Rest by Bishop Jolivet of Natal in order to make contact with the Catholics who had settled there. There were no Catholics in Witbank at that time.