Sweet history

The Clarence Valley in northern NSW is celebrating more than 150 years of being involved in the sugar industry.

Story John Dunn  Photo courtesy Sunshine Sugar

They’re celebrating sugar in the Clarence Valley in northern NSW. And so they should, with milestones like this: it’s the 150th anniversary of the Harwood Sugar Mill; the centenary of the local canegrowers association; in April the Maclean Cane Harvest Festival will be revived after more than a quarter of a century; and 2 new books focused on the sweet stuff have just been published.

The Harwood Mill and Refinery is the second oldest continuously operating sugar mill in Australia, and its 150th commemoration was held just before Christmas. Established in 1874, just a year after the Macknade mill near Ingham in Queensland, the mill processes cane grown by about 190 farmers on roughly 10,000ha of rich alluvial flats considered ideal for cane-growing because of the high annual rainfall and temperate climate.

The event was marked by the release of the book Harwood Sugar Mill – 150 Years, in which operations manager Scott Thompson wrote, “There are not too many Australian-owned manufacturing operations that have achieved a wonderful milestone of 150 years at the same location. Great businesses are made up of great people and Harwood has been blessed with so many.”

Continuity of service has been a cornerstone of the Sunshine Sugar operation, which paid tribute to the dedication of its employees in a collection of videos in its online gallery. They feature people such as Gary Tunsted, who followed 15 years hauling cane with 27 years as a fitter and maintenance engineer, Allan Rooks, whose 47 years was spent as a boilermaker and Leanne Mulligan, an accountant for 35 years.

Harwood stands proudly today on an island in the Clarence. It is operated by Sunshine Sugar, which is a company comprising the grower-owned NSW Sugar Milling Co-operative and the Manildra Group, an agribusiness owned by the Honan family. Sunshine also owns other mills in the area at Broadwater and Condong.

“We are the only 100% Australian-owned refined sugar producer and we supply around 30% of the domestic market, including all private label sugar for Woolworths, Aldi and IGA/Metcash, and supply food and beverage manufacturers including Nestlé, Allen’s, Darrell Lea, Arnott’s and others,” Sunshine CEO Chris Connors says.

Last year Sunshine Sugar’s yield increased, with the harvest total jumping from 1.1 million tonnes of cane to 1.65 million tonnes.