Sugar Farming

Today we went to Polstone Sugar Farm Tours to find out what happens on the cane farms. It was a really interesting tour with Cec Brown, our guide who has been in sugar farming all his life and has seen changes from hand harvesting to the current day machine harvesters. He took us for a drive around on his tractor drawn carriage and stopped at points along the way to show us different aspects of cane farming and explain how it all works. The first stop was to show us how the cane is planted using sets (cuttings) using one of the special planting machines. He told us that the cane we see with the plumes on top is just flowering which means it is ready to harvest. It needs to be harvested when it has the highest CCS (Commercial Cane Sugar) content. Some varieties don’t get these flowers but it seems more around this area do. Cec then disappeared into the cane field and came back carrying some sugar cane he had cut then quickly chopped it into smaller pieces which he sliced the outside hard skin off and then gave us to chew on. It is surprising how much sugary juice you can chew out of those pieces. I felt as though I had sticky cane juice all over my face since you can’t bite off the pieces because the fibre of the cane is too tough so you have to just chew down the length. It was very sweet and yummy though! Next we stopped at the harvester and Cec gave us an explanation and demonstration of how it works. Now, not being the mechanically minded one of us I cannot tell you really how it works except to say that it cuts off the top leaves, strips off the leaves down the length of the cane and then cuts it into billets which are lengths of about 45cm (18in) in length. This is the size that the mill likes to go into the crusher. Following this we went to the mini mill or crusher and Cec put through several canes to extract the sugar juice for us to drink. It is just like a sweet drink such as apple juice but not so appley! It was amazing how flat and dry it leaves the canes. What is left as I mentioned in my previous post is known as bagasse which is what they use at the mill to fire up the furnaces. It is also used to make paper, mulch and the Japanese have recently started using it as a healthy fibre powder which is produced in Proserpine in Queensland also. The tour finished off with a drive around the farm back to the shed where we were offered tea, coffee and homemade biscuits and shown a video of the sugar growing, milling process etc. It was a good tour; Cec is an interesting character who has a lot of information and experience to share.
While we were travelling to the farm today, we stopped at a little local town called Eton for some lunch and ate it in the park. A cheeky little black and white bird came and hopped around on the ground near us. It found a stale piece of bread and kept bashing it on the concrete floor to break pieces off to eat. I tried to scare it off so I could crush the piece for it but it cleverly took its find with it. I consulted my bird field guide and found out that it is a Pied Butcher bird. I didn’t even know they existed up until then. We also saw a bird of prey that had swooped down on something near the road so, because it was a quiet back road, Fin stopped and I took a few photos of it in flight since it was circling around looking for whatever it was after when it swooped down but obviously missed. I identified it as a Black Kite, probably a juvenile from the colouring. I was fairly happy with my photos since it is not easy to get shots of birds in flight and I had to be quick. I will put photos on Webshots when I have broadband connection again. Think I’ll have to start a bird album!
Tonight we went to the Pacific Hotel in Eimeo for dinner based on a recommendation by a guy from the Information Centre at Mackay. He told us it was on the point and had superb views so we thought why not try that instead of one of the many clubs around town. It's about 30 minutes drive from where we aere staying and we would never have come across it without being told about it. We found it without any problems and it was not jam packed with people like the clubs seem to be up here. The food was quite good and the view was indeed lovely, overlooking the sea with lights shining across the water. We had one small problem while we were eating, sitting out on the balcony, and that was a persistent possum that got on our table almost immediately and quickly took one of my chips then came back for more. We had to push it away, push the chair it was climbing on, kick our feet at it but it was so doggedly determined to get some more food. Fin got quite aggressive with the chairs to make it leave! A little while later, the people down further got their meal and I thought it would hassle them but whether we put it off or it heard a call from somewhere else I don't know but it went away after a while and eventually came back with a baby on it's back. Well, we think it was the same one but Fin said it was after sympathy, trying to get food by bringing it's baby. However, it walked right on by on the other side of the iron fence. The animals up here, usually birds, all seem to be very quick to take advantage of humans eating food in their territory!
After our meal we found our way down onto the beach and took a walk along. It was pretty down there too looking back at the lights from the hotel where we had just been. In fact, with the water right there I think the view was even prettier. It is right near Dolphin Heads which has a resort and I believe is quite popular for those of you wondering where on earth Eimeo is. It is said, I-Me-O by the way.
Off to Townsville in the morning so I had better go and pack!