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Cane Farming - Getting Established

Europeans were initially drawn to the heavily forested Tweed Valley in the 1840s by the promise of profits from harvesting the highly-prized red cedar trees. By the 1870s however, the supply of red cedar in the region was virtually exhausted and the potential of the area’s rich alluvial soils for agricultural industries had been recognised.

Farmers in the area experimented with a range of potential crops, including coffee, tobacco, cotton, millet and even opium, but it was sugar cane that proved to be the most promising. The first experimental crops of sugar cane were grown in 1869, but it was difficult for individual farmers and small mills to make a success of sugar cane farming. What was needed in order for the sugar industry to become properly established in the Tweed in the 1870s was a large workforce, one that was relatively unskilled, could do hard, manual labour and wouldn’t cost land owners a lot of money in wages. These workers were required to clear, drain and grub the land, meaning removing stones, trees and other plants, and then to grow and harvest the crops.

The other major factor in developing the sugar growing industry was the decision by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (now known as CSR) to establish plantations and build a large sugar mill at Condong. By the end of the 19th century the foothills of the Tweed River Valley had been largely cleared and replaced with sugar cane plantations.

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