THE SU6AB INDUSTRY OP 



By HARXY T. EASTERBY. 



HffrintfKdfKt. Bureau of Sugcr Experiment 

 Stations. Queensland. 



THE cane sugar industry in Queensland began, like 

 many ;:her industries, en a very small scale early in the 

 settlement ci the Colony. To-day Queensland practically 

 produces almost all the sugar made in Australia, and it 

 is esr'rr.atec that last year the supply reached the sugar 

 needs of the people of Australia. 



In the "ferries and "n fries of last century sugar-cane 

 was grown in many private gardens in Queensland: a 

 considerable amount was also grown in the Government 

 Botanical Gardens, and it is stated there was a small 

 sugar rnfil in existence on the Brisbane River in 1650. 

 lut it appears doubtful if any sugar was ever made. The 

 rst sugar from Queensland-grown cane, of which there 

 is any cfncial record, was made by Mr. John Bnhot in 

 1*62. In 1863 Captain the Hon. Louis Hope had 20 acres 

 under cane on Ormiston Plantation, near Brisbane, and 

 that gentleman is generally conceded to be the father of 

 the Queensland industry. In 1863 the London Society 

 <-_: Arts crered z medal for the first ton of sugar made 

 in the Colony. The first sugar-cane plants were most 

 probably imported from Mauritius, but at this time the 

 Acclimatization. Society took active steps in bringing over 

 z large number of varieties. Land was made available 

 for some years by the Government on remarkably easy 

 terms, and in 1865 over 1.800 acres were taken up for 

 cane growing. By the end of 1867 there were about 

 2.ocx> acres under cultivation and six mills, which manu- 

 factured between them 168 tons of sugar. Up to this 

 time the industry had been carried on entirely in southern 

 Queensland, but it now began to spread to Bundaberg. 



