Page 64 - Port Douglas Magazine 36

“In The Fields - Italian Sugar Cane Cutters” “A group of migrants on the MV TOSCANA”
PHOTO CREDIT: State Library of Queensland PHOTO CREDIT Australian National Maritime Museum

“Mill Street, Mossman” “The Cane Barracks”
PHOTO CREDIT: State Library of Queensland PHOTO CREDIT Bob Pollock

had immigrated were married by proxy, and a relative in Italy would walk the These days, when driving along the highway between Port Douglas and
bride down the aisle in a local wedding before the brave young woman left for Mossman between June and November, the cane fields are being harvested
Australia to join a husband she’d never met. Alfio accompanied his sister, the by huge machines that look like mechanical dinosaurs. If passing by, you can
new Mrs Tati, on her voyage to Mossman, leaving behind his own wife and watch them spitting out cut cane into giant metal bins, leaving the off-cuts on
three young children. He didn’t come back home to them for two years but the ground as ‘trash’. It is very rare that you see a cane fire now.
later returned to Australia with his own family.
Our admiration must go to all the hard workers, local and immigrant, who
Because migrants were the only ones willing to do the back-breaking cane sustained our sugar industry throughout the decades of hand-cutting cane. It
cutting out in the sun all day, covered in black ash from the burnt cane, Alfio was tough, arduous work. Wouldn’t they have loved to be sitting in the cab of
said it was easy to get work. After the field was set on fire, they would chop the an air-conditioned mechanical harvester, driving up and down the cane rows
cane off at ground level, lie it down then chop off the tops. They would then without fear of rats, snakes or ticks.
load up the bundles of cane sticks onto their shoulders and carry them to the
truck. Gratitude must also extend to the wives and mothers who fed them from wood-
burning stoves, washing clothes in the rivers, and raising children without
He said Australians were smarter than the Italians because they turned down electric light, fans, or refrigeration.
this dirty work.
Join in celebrations of Douglas Shire’s Italian heritage at the Sheraton Grand
There was also the threat of contracting Weil’s disease, a severe form of Mirage Resort’s monthly Italian Feast where dining tables are loaded with
leptospirosis, which caused headache, fever, nausea and pain. It was transmitted delicious culinary delights from Executive Chef Belinda Tuckwell, to give locals
from rat’s urine in the cane fields and was one of the main reasons for the and visitors a taste of the delicious cuisine from various regions of Italy.
introduction of mechanical harvesting. Snakes were everywhere.
Cutters lived in barracks on the farm. They stopped work for lunch which was
usually a simple sandwich and some tea. For dinner, they’d light a fire outside sheratonportdouglas/experiences
the barracks and boil some spaghetti or minestrone. In Sicilian dialect they say
“You either eat this minestrone or you throw yourself out the window.”

66 Port Douglas Travel Planner