[1] When farmer, Gerhardt Van der Byl retired back to the Cape Province in 1927, he sold his then farm, Welmoed to the Salisbury Real Estate Co, a property development company with Scottish founders, who settled on the name Highlands, partly because it lies on one of the highest pieces of ground in Harare, but also because of their Scottish heritage.

[3] Within the Ballantyne and Mukuvisi Woodlands boundaries lies one the highest natural point in the Harare, some 1600 metres above sea level.

Ballantyne Park also hosts community gardens, playgrounds, tennis courts, playing fields, and dog-walkers year round, while Mukuvisi is a popular nature and wildlife reserve.

[5] The neighborhood is near one the highest points in Harare, Ballantyne Park, which houses a nature reserve, recreation areas and a mixed use cricket and soccer field.

[6] In association with a few friends, he formed the Salisbury Real Estate Company that bought the Welmoed East Farm and developed in the early 1930s into the suburb of Highlands.

He eschewed the then popular Cape Dutch architecture and designed many buildings and residences that followed the English neoclassical, Georgian and the Arts and Crafts movement styles.