Yengarie Sugar Mill and Refinery

Ruins of the Central Sugar Mill. Source:Queensland Heritage Register 

Ruins of the Central Sugar Mill. Source:Queensland Heritage Register 

Yengarie was a hub of industry when the sugar refinery and mill were located there. The Queensland Heritage register has information about the the ruins of the Central Sugar Mill and the Yengarie Sugar Refinery  The remains from 1866 can be found near the Mary River at Yengarie. It serviced many sugar plantations in the area before closing, in the late 1890s. Sugar cane had been first brought to Australia in 1788 and by the end of the decade cane was being cultivated at Maryborough, Mackay and Bundaberg.

Ruins of the Central Sugar Mill. Source:Queensland Heritage Register 

According to the Heritage Register local timber millers Frederick Gladwell and Robert Greathead decided to build a mill  and wharves that would  enable cane to be processed from surrounding farms. Written agreements were obtained from local farmers regarding the supply of cane.

The Heritage Register States "In early November 1868 the Maryborough Chronicle reported that the mill's end of season production was estimated to be 70 tons of sugar and 75 hogsheads of rum. The first shipment of locally produced rum left Maryborough on 11 November when 19 hogsheads from the Central Mill and 20 tons of sugar left on board the Saxonia for Sydney. In 1869/1870 William Gibson, who had operated a sugar mill near Brisbane, purchased the Central Mill, which he ran until the mid 1880s. However, by 1877 the Central was operating only as a juice mill, crushing growers' cane and delivering the juice to the nearby Yengarie Refinery. This had been established by Tooth & Cran in 1867 and was upgraded in 1871 to be a large modern refinery producing a high quality white sugar".

Cran purchased the Central Mill in the early 1890s. In 1893 flooding damaged farms, the mill and the refinery. In 1899 and the Central Mill was taken over by the Kersnovske family, becoming the Central Plantation (Queensland Heritage Register). 

The structures of the Mill are now in disrepair. The front and one side wall of the refinery remain.

Yengarie Sugar Refinery Source:Queensland Heritage Register

 References:
Queensland Heritage Register retrieved on 30.11.2018 from 
https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=600970
https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=602488
Tags #Sugar #mill #yengarie #maryborough #juice #