Download (4Mb) - USQ ePrints - University of Southern Queensland

Figure 1.1 The cropping and pasture land in the 300-600 mm mean annual rainfall zones of WA
(top) and south eastern Australia (bottom)
Sugar system
Sugar cane was introduced with the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. However, early attempts to
grow sugar cane around Sydney Cove, Port Macquarie and Norfolk Island were unsuccessful. It was
not until the 1860s that a viable sugar cane plantation and raw sugar mill was established at Ormiston
near Cleveland, Brisbane, by Captain Louis Hope.
By the 1880s, cane lands were being developed further along Queensland's tropical coast and along
the northern coast of New South Wales (Figure 1.2). However, the high cost of wages for Australian
workers made it difficult for the industry to compete successfully with overseas sugar producers such
as Fiji, Indonesia and South Africa. To overcome this problem, cheap "contract" labour was brought
in from the South Pacific islands (Kanakas). In the late 1880s regulations were introduced to control
the recruitment of Kanakas and by 1908 many of the Kanakas had been returned to their homelands
although some stayed in Australia. However, the need for labour on the cane fields continued and in
6