Tobacco, a smokin’ history

WORDS by Sara Mulcahy

Tobacco growing started during the early years of settlement. At its peak in the 1970s, Australia produced 16,000 tonnes of tobacco leaf a year — more than half of it here in Far North Queensland.

Each growing area had its own Tobacco Leaf Marketing Board, which was responsible for allocating supply quotas of tobacco to the individual growers. Our nearest branch, retitled in 1990 as the Australian Tobacco Marketing Advisory Committee, was located in Mareeba, the centre for tobacco growing in the Far North.

You can still see its signage atop the building, now a Westpac bank, on Byrnes Street, the town’s main thoroughfare.

Today, the land that once produced tobacco now grows limes, bananas, sugar cane, avocados, mangos and coffee.

An hour’s drive inland from Port Douglas, Mareeba started life as a coach stage between here and the mining town of Herberton. In the 1890s, the railway from Cairns was opened, and Mareeba became one of the busiest spots in north Queensland.

For today’s travellers, it’s the gateway to the Atherton Tablelands, a rich and diverse agricultural area that’s famous for its fruit crops, grazing pastures, waterfalls and historical villages. Tobacco was a major crop here right up until 2004.

With its rich volcanic soils and subtropical climate, conditions around Mareeba and nearby Dimbulah were perfect for the cultivation of this specialised crop. In 1926, a Government experiment station was set up a couple of miles out of town to test the possibilities of tobacco growing. Pursuant to its success, the Lands Department threw open parcels of land for a deposit of £3, and every available acre was taken up.

A decade or so of setbacks followed, due to the lack of a reliable water supply. Each seedling needed a cup of water a day to thrive until the rains began, and no rain meant no crop.

Many of the pioneers went broke. It became clear that without irrigation, the survival — and expansion — of tobacco was a pipe dream. And so began the construction of Tinaroo Falls Dam. 

Built on the Barron River, about 100km upstream of its mouth in Cairns, the dam stores 436,500 megalitres of water, distributed by channels that were purpose-built to supply the tobacco farms. It was filled up for the first time on March 31, 1962, and soon after, Mareeba became the tobacco capital of Australia.

Cured and graded tobacco leaf was sold to licensed tobacco manufacturers via the sales floor in Mareeba. Cigarette companies were legally obliged to use at least 50% Australian tobacco in their local cigarettes, and the Tobacco Leaf Marketing Board oversaw industry ‘stabilisation plans’ which guaranteed the sale of leaf at a set price.

For the next few decades, tobacco was the main crop grown on the Tablelands, and at its peak was worth $50 million a year.

But the good times didn’t last. Support for the industry began to wane in the 1980s. Education about the calamitous health effects of smoking saw tobacco use in the Australian population dwindle, and stepped reductions in the protective tariffs meant cigarette manufacturers could turn to the cheaper international market for their leaf.

The Australian Tobacco Marketing Advisory Committee was abolished in 1997, and the Government offered a buyout scheme which saw many growers diversifying into cattle or produce. Those few who remained were stymied when the last manufacturer, Philip Morris, pulled the pin on its North Queensland buying agreements in 2004. The last sales contracts were filled that same year.

Today, the land that once produced tobacco now grows limes, bananas, sugar cane, avocados, mangos and coffee. Pretty much all traces of its former primary industry have gone. The tobacco sheds that littered the landscape have been repurposed or destroyed; the brick kilns and chimneys left to rot.

But the memories live on at the Mareeba Heritage Museum on Byrnes Street in Mareeba — home to Australia's largest tobacco industry exhibit. Their coffee is excellent, too.