Page 15 - Port Douglas Magazine 33

FIELDS OF DREAMS CINDERELL A MEN

Like laneway graffiti is to Melbourne, if ever there was an Many young men came to the region with money on their

iconic backdrop to a region it would be the cane fields to mind and adventure in their heart, taking up the opportunity
North Queensland. to work the sugar cane fields of North Queensland, a ticket

Making its way on the first fleet, cane was planted with a for a better life for themselves and their families.

dollop of successes in the south. However the crops that Most of these young men were European migrants, many
would yield an indulgence of riches through producing from Italy fresh on Aussie shores. Cutting from dawn to

massive amounts of sugar, molasses and, of course, rum dusk suffering from the severe heat, sweat burning their eyes
Sweet along the tropical north that once boomed with prospectors For them, sugarcane became their happily ever after,

they worked long and hard day after day hoping for a fairy-
enjoyed warmer climates and that’s when the river of
Mossman became suitability kind to the crop of wealth.
tale ending, in time they were able to turn their cuts and
THE
blisters into small farms.
It wasn’t long until the sweet granular gold replaced ports
hoping to strike it rich in the gold rush.
the family operated farms being handed down through

the centuries. There are still many cane growers who are
Dan Hart, a timber cutter from Jamaica, arrived in 1874
descendants of those young men who took the chance to

and became the first non-indigenous settler of Mossman. He
cut for their family knowing or not that it would become
began experimenting with the cultivation of sugarcane, with
generational.
which he had experience from his time in Jamaica. Noted as
However, not all fairy tales are all ‘bibbidi-bobbidi-boo’. A
the pioneer of the sugar industry in Mossman there was a
brief stint when the town was known as Hartsville.

dark side emerged from the flowering fields. Before migrants

chose to come and work the cane there was a cheap and
In the early days, having a cane farm was a golden ticket in
more compliant workforce, a source of labour that was
life once you got past the relentless grind and toil of working
SPOT

the fields. They started from scratch on land that was dense
Numerous South Pacific Islanders were employed for

tropical rainforest that had to be hacked down and burned.
In the clearing arose the foundations of the sweet life in
low-cost labour and taken to Queensland, many illegally
through coercion or kidnapping, in a process termed as
Mossman.

‘blackbirding’. These workers were known as “Kanakas”
The legacy of sugar dynasties in the region runs deep as you found close by, on the islands of the South Pacific Ocean.

notice the names that adorn the streets of Mossman, names and were treated as slaves who were assigned to growers and
WORDS by Jeremy LeBeuf like Hart, Thomas William Wilson, Pringle, and Johnston could be imprisoned for escaping.

to name a few of the families that were pivotal to propelling It was a popular opinion that white men were soft and didn’t
Mossman into the township it is today. have the physical endurance to cope with the work in the
elcome to sugar town - or Mossman, Queensland as it’s brutal tropical climate.

better known on maps and GPS - where the air is sweetly Unfortunately, at the start, their fields of gold had little
Wperfumed, and the soft frills of fl owering sugarcane decorate value when the nearest mill was 200 kilometres away. At one point there were roughly 500 Islanders who worked
the countryside. Salvation came when a lifeline of money was provided by the farms in the region. Gratefully, change came when the

It’s a quaint town with a rich history as thick as the molasses that forms the government that enabled the local farmers to build their Pacific Island Labourers Act of 1901 abolished this type of
own mill. It was self-managed, and the independent farmers
recruitment and by 1908, most had returned home.
part of the lifeblood of the community. From the traditional aboriginal
landowners, the Kuku Yalanji people, and their special relationship with seized this opportunity, and in no time the tastebuds of
fortune were buzzing with the sweet stuff.

the enchanting Mossman Gorge whose gigantic boulders strike through Sugar has always been a boom-and-bust industry. However, MACHETES TO
rainforest-laden mountains that frame the township to the scattering of
historic buildings that stood strong through cyclones and World War Two for the generational growers of Mossman, it is the champion HARVESTERS
bomb raids. crop of the tropics with a mammoth 95% of Australia’s Breaking their backs, cutters swung cane knives in thick

Oozing with friendly Tropical North Queensland hospitality, Mossman sugar cane grown in Queensland. crop amongst snakes and rats. They shouldered 50 plus kilos
has had its share of a somewhat scandalous past of romance, murder, and Because of the superior quality of the cane grown up here a bundle cutting 10 tonnes a day. It’s hard to fathom how
intrigue. Its past is remembered by an infamously torrid love affair between and the quantity produced, Australia is a sucrose tycoon as these workers coped under these brutal conditions but it

original settlers that would become written in history as the only woman the second-largest sugar-producing nation in the world. was only a matter of time before the straw would drop, and
legally hung in Queensland, even after her lover confessed that he was the The Douglas region was built on the back of cane growers innovation would save their backs.

lone killer. and sugar processing. Take a look around and you’ll find Engineers and growers fiddled away for many years to get

There’s a lot to learn about the little town. However this is not a bitter story, most of the paddocks here are utilised in sugar production more productivity out of each harvest, as slower cutting
it’s a story of how Mossman became the sweet spot as the region’s sugar and the industry maintains a strong iconic value. seasons meant wasted cane that resulted in plummeting

capital and how the flowering cane came to shape the lives and industry profi ts.
of a community.
PORT DOUGLAS MAGAZINE 15