St Francis Bay sits on coastal sand and aeolianite at the Kromme River mouth, with the canals and the thatched village on low-lying ground close to tidal water.
Shallow holes, with salinity rather than depth as the question that decides the design.
What Is Under St Francis Bay
The formations below are what a rig actually meets on a St Francis Bay property, and between them they govern the depth, the casing requirement and what the hole will realistically give you.
| Formation | Where it sits | What it means for drilling |
|---|---|---|
| Table Mountain Group, Peninsula and Baviaanskloof Formations | The rugged high ground inland and beneath the coastal cover | Hard, fractured quartzite. Yield depends entirely on intersecting a fracture zone, and the Tsitsikamma coast aquifer is regarded as having significant storage potential. |
| Bokkeveld Group shale | The valleys between the quartzite ridges | Weathered near surface and tighter with depth. Needs casing through the unstable section and yields less than the quartzite. |
| Coastal and dune sands | The shifting dune fields from Oyster Bay to St Francis, and the Jeffreys Bay sand belt | Shallow, loose and quick to drill, and the one setting here where a wellpoint is a real alternative. |
Send your street and what the water is for, and get an itemised quote for St Francis Bay.
Get a St Francis Bay Borehole QuoteWhat That Means for Your Borehole
- Quartzite yield is all about structure, so money spent on siting buys more than money spent on metres. A fracture zone, a fault or a dyke contact is the target.
- Table Mountain Group water is the best quality in the province, typically soft, low in dissolved solids and mildly acidic, which is easy to use and slightly aggressive to metal fittings.
- Boreholes carry the drought load in this district, which is why the Jeffreys Bay treatment works was upgraded specifically to handle borehole water.
Where We Work Around St Francis Bay
- St Francis Bay village and the canals
- The Kromme River mouth and Seal Point side
- Cape St Francis and the lighthouse approaches
- Santareme and the links
- Port St Francis and the harbour
- Holiday and second-home properties
What to Watch For Here
Canal and river-mouth properties sit on tidal water, which makes the saline interface the governing constraint and the sustainable rate the critical number.
Thatch and tight village layouts limit rig access, and the practical drilling position is sometimes decided by what a rig can reach rather than by the survey.
What the Water Is Used For
- Irrigating coastal gardens and lawn
- Rinsing salt off paving, walls and vehicles
- Pool top-up, subject to what the analysis says
- Standby supply through restrictions and outages
- Keeping mature planting alive through summer
Wellpoint or Borehole?
Yes on the dune fields and the coastal sand belt, where a driven point can cover garden irrigation at a fraction of a borehole's cost. Not on the quartzite or in the Bokkeveld valleys, where the water table is too deep for suction lift and the ground cannot be driven.
Water Quality in St Francis Bay
Quartzite groundwater here is the cleanest natural water in the region: low in dissolved salts, soft and slightly acidic. Where Algoa Group or Bokkeveld rock contributes, hardness and iron appear. Coastal sand holes recharge quickly, which is an advantage for yield and a vulnerability for quality.
A water analysis is what turns that from a general expectation into a number for your specific hole, and treatment should be specified against the result rather than against the area's reputation.
Registration and Abstraction
Groundwater itself is regulated nationally rather than municipally, and we could not find a published borehole by-law for this district municipality. As the water services authority it can still require approval before a property draws on an alternative supply, so we confirm the local position before drilling rather than assuming it. Separately, the National Water Act governs how much you may abstract. Reasonable domestic use and small-scale garden watering generally fall under Schedule 1 and need no licence or registration, but taking more than 10 cubic metres a day from groundwater on a property must be registered, and irrigation or commercial volumes usually require registration or a water use authorisation from the Department of Water and Sanitation.
Related Services
For the drilling process itself, the geology across the rest of the country and how a quote is put together, see Borehole Installers South Africa.
Borehole Prices in St Francis Bay
Drilling is charged per metre, so depth drives the total. The ranges below are framed for local ground conditions and access.
| Item | Indicative range | What moves it locally |
|---|---|---|
| Drilling, per metre | R600 - R1,350 /m | Quartzite is hard, slow and hard on bits. Coastal sand at the other end of the scale drills quickly and cheaply. |
| uPVC casing, installed, per metre | R450 - R800 /m | Quartzite is largely self-supporting, so casing is mostly through overburden. Sand needs screening and a gravel pack. |
| Mobilisation and site establishment | R2,500 - R10,000 | Access, distance and site conditions move this; a site visit settles it before quoting. |
| Water survey | R5,000 - R12,000 | Targets structure rather than depth. Worth most where yield is fracture-dependent. |
| Yield testing | R3,500 - R15,000 | Establishes the sustainable rate that pump selection depends on. |
| Pump, supplied and installed | R15,000 - R45,000 | Greater depth means more head, which means a larger pump and heavier cable. |
| Storage and booster | R12,000 - R35,000 | Needed wherever peak demand exceeds the borehole's sustainable rate. |
| Typical complete project | R95,000 - R250,000+ | Everything above, excluding treatment, which depends entirely on the water analysis. |
These are indicative ranges, not a quotation. They are compiled from published South African supplier and contractor pricing to give you a starting point for budgeting. They are not our rate card, and no figure here is a commitment.
Treat them as a broad guide only. Published borehole pricing in South Africa varies enormously - different 2026 guides quote per-metre drilling rates for the same province that differ by a factor of three - because depth, geology, access, specification, distance and fuel costs all move the number. Depth in particular is not known until the hole is finished. Figures generally exclude VAT unless noted, and change over time. Only an itemised written quote against your actual site means anything.
St Francis Bay Borehole FAQs
Can you drill a borehole on a canal property in St Francis?
Often, but the design has to respect how close the tidal water is. Over-pumping pulls the saline interface toward the hole, and on a canal stand there is not much distance to play with.
Yield testing sets the safe rate. Treating a modest sustainable yield as the answer is better than chasing a bigger pump.
Is borehole water here safe for the garden?
Usually, subject to salinity. Coastal planting here is fairly tolerant, but the analysis should still decide rather than the look of the water.
Rinsing salt off paving and walls is one of the more useful things a coastal borehole does, and it does not need drinking-quality water.
What makes a good borehole site around St Francis Bay?
A fracture zone, a fault or a dyke contact in the quartzite. The rock itself holds almost nothing, so the whole exercise is intersecting structure.
That is what a geophysical survey looks for, and on this ground it is the difference between a working hole and a dry one.
Is the water quality good here?
Table Mountain Group water is the best in the province: soft, low in dissolved solids and pleasant to use.
The one practical consequence of soft, slightly acidic water is that it is mildly aggressive to copper and galvanised fittings over time. Worth specifying materials with that in mind.
NEED A BOREHOLE IN ST FRANCIS BAY?
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