Bundaberg Sugar is a company involved in all aspects of sugar manufacture, including growing and milling the sugarcane and refining and marketing the sugar. It operates principally in the Bundaberg Region, Queensland, Australia. As at 2014, the company had over 9,000 hectares (22,000 acres) of sugarcane plantations.[1]

Bundaberg Sugar
PredecessorsFairymead Sugar Company and Gibson & Howes
Founded1972 by merger
Headquarters,
OwnerFinasucre

History

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Orenstein & Koppel 0-4-0 steam locomotive built in 1914 for hauling sugar cane trains at Millaquin mill
 
Decauville locomotive works N° 399 of 1904 at Millaquin sugar mill

Bundaberg Sugar Company Limited was created in 1972 from the merger of the Fairymead Sugar Company Limited and Gibson & Howes Limited. Through these, the company can trace its history back to 1870 when the Fairymead Sugar Plantation was first established.[2][3]

In 2000, Bundaberg was acquired by the Belgian holding company Finasucre. In 2013, the company entered into an agreement with Pacific Gold Macadamias to purchase its waste product, approximately 2,000 tonnes of macadamia nut shells each year, which will be burned as a fuel to process the bagasse (the waste product of sugar milling) into biofuel.[4]

In 2014, the company purchased 14 new water irrigators which use 50% less power than the older style and are expected to increase sugarcane yields by 5–10%.[1]

The Bingera sugar mill was closed in 2020.[5]

Sugar mills

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As of 2022 Only one mill remains in operation.[6]

Formerly they had other mills operating in the region:[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Rogers, Eliza (19 December 2014). "Bundaberg Sugar invests in more energy efficient irrigators". ABC News. Archived from the original on 12 November 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Company History". Bundaberg Sugar. Archived from the original on 12 November 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  3. ^ "History of the House". Fairymead House. Archived from the original on 12 November 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  4. ^ Rogers, Eliza (14 June 2013). "Nut shells fire up a power plant". ABC News. Archived from the original on 12 November 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  5. ^ a b "End of an era as Bundaberg Sugar announces closure of historic mill". ABC News. 23 October 2020. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
  6. ^ "End of an era as Bundaberg Sugar announces closure of historic mill". ABC News. 23 October 2020.

Further reading

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  • Kerr, John; Kerr, John; Bundaberg Sugar Company (1983), Southern sugar saga : a history of the sugar industry in the Bundaberg District, Bundaberg Sugar Company Limited, ISBN 978-0-9592689-1-1
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