Page 51 - Port Douglas Magazine 43

Sweeter

Than Fiction

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SUGAR

WORDS by Sara Mulcahy
PROOF, IF YOU NEED IT, that you’ve reached the tropics often lies in Australians were not thought suited to the harsh North Queensland
the sight of endless fields of sugar cane swaying in the breeze. conditions, so attention was turned further afield. In 1863 a group of 67
The Far North region of Queensland has about 30,000 hectares under cane, South Sea Islanders was brought to Queensland to work in the cotton and
and many of the roads between the airport and Port Douglas are lined with sugar industries.
green-and-gold fields. Over the next 40 years or so, more than 62,000 men, women and children
If you visit in May, the cane will be pushing small white flowers skywards were transported from Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia,
on a feathery plume. Arrive between June and November, and you’ll see the Papua New Guinea, Kiribati and Fiji.
huge mechanical harvesters disgorging the billets into bins for transport by Most workers were recruited via a process known as blackbirding whereby
road and rail. they were lured, tricked or kidnapped to Australia and paid little (and often
But not everything about sugar is sweet. Behind its picturesque facade lies nothing) for their labour. About 15,000 died while working in Queensland.
more than a century of history laced with triumph, treachery and hard, In 1901, as a part of the new White Australia policy, the Federal Government
hard yakka. passed the Pacific Island Labourers Act. The law prohibited any more South
The First Fleet brought sugar to Australia in 1788. Once considered a Sea Islanders from entering Australia and meant that most Islanders already
luxury item afforded only by the very wealthy. However, after the Europeans in Australia could be deported. More than 7500 were forcibly returned
established sugar plantations in the Caribbean islands in the early 18th to their country of origin, even though some had arrived in Australia as
century, prices fell, and soon most of Britain was enjoying sugar in its tea. children and knew no other home.
Then followed chocolate, confectionery and jams. To satiate the collective
sweet tooth, the British looked further afield to colonies in Africa, the THE ADVENTURES OF MR TOAD
Pacific, and Queensland. Why is the cane toad called a cane toad? Obvious, really. Imported from
Australia’s first crop was crushed near Brisbane in 1862, and the government Hawaii in the 1930s, the Bufo marinus was released into the cane fields of
encouraged establishment of large-scale sugar cane plantations across the Queensland in an attempt to control native pests. The white grub larvae
state. of several species of native beetle would eat away at the roots of the cane
causing the plants to die. A government entomologist — let’s call him
BURN BABY BURN Reginald William Mungomery — imported the toads, bred them and
Iconic images of cane fields set alight, the flames leaping into the air, is released more than 2000 in Gordonvale, near Cairns. In less than two
months, the number of toads had increased at least 24-fold, sparking what
something you’re unlikely to see in the tropical north these days. Once is perhaps our best example of an introduced species gone wrong.
upon a time in the 1940s and ’50s, it was a common and strangely exciting
sight. Burning cane cleared out the ‘trash’ — the green leaf matter — leaving Cane toads currently flourish across the whole of Queensland and have
only the stalk to be harvested. Preharvest burns also served to get rid of the spread into NSW, the NT and WA. Despite being less problematic than
rats which exposed labourers to leptospirosis (Weil’s disease). When the other invaders such as rabbits, pigs and cats, the cane toad ranks as our
first mechanical harvesters were introduced in the 1960s, they were made most hated invasive animal. These brown and warty amphibians have
to cut burnt cane, but these days modern machinery is designed to ‘cut voracious appetites when it comes to insects, frogs and small reptiles. Their
green’. skin contains toxic venom that can also kill native predators – and pets.
Sugarcane burning has all but been phased out around the world due to
concerns about air pollution. In the tropical north, the cane is cut and SWEET AND SOUR
the roots are left in the ground to produce a new crop several times over Sugar prices in 2024 hit a 20-year high. Production is worth $2.5 billion
before ploughing and replanting is necessary. The Burdekin Region, about to the Australian economy each year, and the Far North is aiming to
70km south of Townsville, is one of the few places in Queensland that still increase its sugarcane production by 600,000 tonnes by 2026. Despite this,
routinely burns its cane fields. the outlook for the sugar industry here in the Douglas Shire is bleak. The
127-year-old Mossman Mill went into liquidation in March 2024, and the
SLAVE LABOUR future of cane growing in our region is up in the air. For the 2024 crush,
A labour-intensive crop, sugar historically has been grown on slave and harvested billets were transported to the Mulgrave Mill in Cairns by road,
a solution that many suggest is untenable in the long term. At time of press,
indentured labour, and Queensland is no exception. Once the free convict Mossman Mill is for sale. All reasonable offers will be considered.
labour had dried up, the sugar industry had to look elsewhere. Free white