Sugar is sweet

My first big holiday trip kicked off at 5am with a taxi to the train station. I had booked a trip on the Sunlander, the train service that goes right up the coast of Queensland from Brisbane to Cairns and is supposed to be one of the most scenic train journeys in the world. Unfortunately I got off to a bad start when the train was two hours late arriving into Mackay, so despite getting up at the crack of the sparrows I had to delay my excitement a little longer before commencing my journey. The trip was indeed scenic and the train itself was comfortable and spacious, though it felt at times like the driver was a novice because the carriages lurched and rattled at every station and set of points, and the carriage of pensioners I was in were getting thrown around and gave up a chorus of shrieks every time the train juddered and jolted, which was fairly frequently.

I arrived in the small town of Ingham in the mid afternoon and was met at the station by Peter Sheedy, a friend of Helen’s, whom I had met previously at Helen’s 60th birthday party. He and his wife Elizabeth had generously invited me to spend the weekend in Ingham with them on my way up to Cairns.

Vast swathes of North Queensland, including the areas around Mackay and Ingham, are dedicated to the sugar industry. Sugar cane fields stretch out for miles and miles up the fertile coastal region and dotted here and there are the sugar mills which process the cane and turn it into raw sugar. Most of the raw sugar is then sent overseas to be refined. My stay in Ingham was to be an educative one, with sugar at its core. After a nice sit down and a cup of tea Peter drove me out to the Victoria sugar mill to meet his friend Bernie who worked there. Bernie gave me a very interesting talk on sugar production and then gave me a tour of the mill to show me the various processes involved. The steam powered machinery was so loud that he could not give me the talk as we went along, and we had to wear earplugs to protect our eardrums. The smell was overwhelming, a sickly sweet burnt caramel odour that was inescapable. The chemistry and technology in the production of such a ubiquitous foodstuff as sugar was really quite illuminating and what really impressed me was how all the by-products were recycled in some way; nothing was wasted, everything either used for fuelling further processes, or sent out to be used as animal feed or fertiliser.

Later I was invited to dinner with Bernie and his wife, Sue, at their house, which Helen used to live in when the Page family resided in Ingham 18 years ago. We were joined by Peter and Elizabeth, two other friends of Helen’s, Andrew and Margaret (Andrew is originally from Bridlington!) and their neighbour, Erica. We had a gorgeous meal followed by a delicious bottle of port. Everyone was so kind and welcoming to me, it was really wonderful.

The following day, after a little wander around Ingham town centre, Peter had arranged for me to go out into the sugar cane fields to see the sugar cane being harvested. We met up with a guy called Michael (who used to go to school with Helen’s eldest son, David) who talked me through the process and then invited me up onto the harvester to see how it was done. I knew I was going to have some wild adventures in Australia but I have ended up doing things here that are never listed in any Lonely Planet guide! The cane is cut and threshed by the harvesting machine and loaded into trailers pulled by tractors which drive alongside. The tractors then take the cane to the nearest cane railway and dump it into the cane bins. The whole countryside is criss-crossed by a network of cane railways and the cane trains take the cane to the mills for processing. Some of the trains are half a kilometre long! They are really quite impressive.

After a delicious lunch of Turkish flatbread pizzas cooked by Elizabeth (I am bringing that recipe back home, guys!) I went out to the TYTO wetlands centre on the edge of Ingham. This is a protected area that hasn’t been drained for sugar plantations and has been returned to its natural habitat as a sanctuary for wetland birds, crocodiles and other native plants and animals. I saw a snake slither across the path in front of me, and also gaggles of grey wallabies hopping around. It was lovely.

On my last day in Ingham, Peter and Elizabeth drove me out into the hinterland to the Wallaman Falls. This waterfall is the highest single drop in Australia and it’s magnificent! It tumbles down a cliff into a deep canyon surrounded by rainforest which covers the mountain range all around. Peter and I took a walk down into the canyon to stretch our legs and get a closer look. The landscape of Australia really is breathtaking and this is the side of Australia that I love the most.

Later that afternoon, Peter drove me out to the small town of Lucinda, which is on the coast, at the mouth of the Hinchinbrook channel to see the final destination of the sugar after it has been processed. More cane trains bring the processed raw sugar out here where it is stored in gigantic bins the size of aircraft hangers. The sugar produced in Ingham is all exported; it is not kept for domestic consumption. It is then loaded onto ships to be sent overseas for refining into the white sugar that we put in our tea. Lucinda is notable for its jetty, from which the sugar is loaded : it is the longest sugar jetty in the world and is 6km long. It is so long that it was built with a curve in it to match the curve of the earth! So after my visit to Lucinda I saw the full cycle of sugar production, from planting and harvesting, to processing and transporting, to finally being loaded for export. I told you my trip was educational!


Thank you to Peter and Elizabeth and all the other lovely people I met in Ingham for making my stay there so enjoyable and welcoming me so warmly. It was a wonderful experience that I will always remember.