Goondi Mill

Goondi Mill
Goondi Sugar Mill, near Innisfail, 1930.
Location
Coordinates	17.50910° S, 146.00369° E
State	Queensland
Region	Northern Region
LGA	Cassowary Coast Regional Council
Details
Established	1885 (141 years ago)
Closed	1986 (40 years ago)
Owner	CSR (at closure)
Gauge	610 mm (2 ft)
Annual Crush	approximately 600,000 tonnes (near closure)

Goondi Sugar Mill was a sugar mill located on the banks of the North Johnstone River near Innisfail in Far North Queensland. Established by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR), the mill first crushed cane in 1885 and remained a CSR operation throughout its working life.

Goondi completed its final crushing season in 1986. Its cane supply area and railway network were subsequently divided between Babinda Mill and Mourilyan Mill as part of the Queensland sugar industry's Far Northern rationalisation programme in 1987.

History

Establishment

CSR entered the Johnstone River district in 1882, when its board authorised the acquisition of approximately 5,000 acres of land. Charles Edward Adams was sent north to establish the estate, which became known as Goondi.

A mill was not initially planned for the property. CSR originally intended for cane grown at Goondi to be processed at the nearby Innisfail Estate Mill. Uncertainty over the future of that mill led CSR to establish its own factory.

In 1884 CSR approved the dismantling of its former Southgate Mill on the Clarence River in New South Wales, with part of its machinery transported north for incorporation into the new Goondi factory.

Goondi Mill commenced crushing in 1885.

The mill became one of CSR's principal North Queensland operations, alongside Victoria Mill on the Herbert River and the former Homebush Mill near Mackay.

Plantation and labour

The original Goondi operation combined a large company-owned plantation with the sugar factory.

South Sea Islander labour formed a major part of the early workforce. CSR actively recruited Pacific Island labourers for its Goondi operations from the early 1880s, employing them in clearing, cultivation and other plantation work.

CSR records relating to the mill include extensive material concerning the employment of South Sea Islanders and other workers.

The plantation system was progressively replaced by independent cane farming. By the end of the nineteenth century an increasing proportion of Goondi's cane was being supplied by independent growers rather than produced directly by CSR.

Italian migrants began settling in the Johnstone River district during the 1890s and were recorded among Goondi tenant farmers. Italian settlement expanded considerably during the early twentieth century and became an important part of the Innisfail district's sugar industry.

River transport

Goondi Mill was advantageously located directly on the North Johnstone River.

Raw sugar was originally packed in bags and loaded at the mill's river wharf. The Adelaide Steamship Company and associated small steamers and lighters carried sugar down the Johnstone River for transhipment and coastal transport.

The practice was sometimes described as sugar being sold or shipped "on the river bank".

The final shipment of raw sugar from the Goondi Mill wharf was loaded on 9 April 1960. Following the opening of the Mourilyan Bulk Sugar Terminal later that year, Goondi's raw sugar was transported to Mourilyan Harbour by road.

Closure

By the mid-1980s the Australian sugar industry was experiencing severe financial pressure associated with exceptionally low world sugar prices and excess milling capacity.

CSR made the commercial decision to close Goondi following the 1986 crushing season. Contemporary Queensland parliamentary records state that approximately 600,000 tonnes of cane then assigned to Goondi became available for redistribution.

The Queensland and Commonwealth governments subsequently supported a regional rationalisation programme involving the surviving Babinda and Mourilyan mills.

The Sugar Milling Rationalization (Far Northern Region) Act 1987 provided for former Goondi growers to be rezoned between:

• Babinda Mill, principally receiving the northern portion of the former Goondi supply area; and
• Mourilyan Mill, receiving part of the southern supply area.

The allocation was controversial. South Johnstone Mill had sought access to former Goondi cane and the Central Sugar Cane Prices Board had expressed reservations about excluding South Johnstone from the redistribution arrangement.

Government assistance totalling approximately $12.84 million in Commonwealth and State loans and grants was made available for the rationalisation, including upgrades to Babinda and Mourilyan mills and their cane railway systems.

Ownership clarification

Goondi Mill remained a CSR operation through its final crushing season in 1986.

The Noel Butlin Archives Centre holds Goondi's operational records as part of the CSR Limited collection, covering the mill from its establishment through the closure and disposal process.

Some later secondary sources incorrectly state that Goondi was taken over by Bundaberg Sugar before it closed. Contemporary records instead show that, following CSR's decision to close the mill, Goondi assets were divided and sold during the 1987 rationalisation process.

Parliamentary records describe agreements under which CSR sold Goondi land, tramway property and mill equipment to the Babinda Co-operative and to interests associated with Babinda and Howard Smith, then the owner of Mourilyan Mill.

Bundaberg Sugar did not operate Goondi Mill.

Infrastructure

Cane railway

Goondi operated an extensive 610 mm (2 ft) gauge cane railway network serving farms on both sides of the North Johnstone River.

The railway system expanded progressively as CSR subdivided plantation land and independent cane farming developed.

A significant feature of the system was the mill's bridge across the North Johnstone River, which linked the northern and southern parts of the cane railway network.

The bridge was sufficiently important to the district that, before completion of the Queensland Government's permanent North Coast railway bridge in 1924, government railway passengers were for a period conveyed across the river using the Goondi mill tramway bridge.

Other parts of the network included branches through the Daradgee, Garradunga and Jogo districts.

Post-closure railway network

Following Goondi's closure, its cane railway was divided between Babinda and Mourilyan mills along with the former cane supply area.

Former Goondi lines north of the North Johnstone River initially became part of the Babinda system, while other lines were operated by Mourilyan. The North Johnstone River bridge was retained, allowing flexibility in moving cane between the former mill territories.

The surviving former Goondi railway infrastructure later became incorporated into the wider interconnected Far North Queensland cane railway system.

Production

Goondi's annual throughput varied considerably during its century of operation.

The previously quoted figure of 900,000 tonnes as a historical average is not supported by available records. Contemporary parliamentary discussion following the closure described Goondi as having crushed approximately 600,000 tonnes of cane in its later years, broadly corresponding with the quantity of assigned cane redistributed after closure.

Statistic	Value
First crushing season	1885
Approximate throughput near closure	600,000 tonnes
Final crushing season	1986
Rationalisation and reassignment	1987
Cane railway gauge	610 mm (2 ft)

Legacy

The factory was dismantled following closure and little of the original mill complex survives at the site.

A major surviving piece of Goondi machinery is a 500 hp steam-driven crushing engine built by A. & W. Smith of Glasgow in 1950. The engine drove the No. 3 crushing unit at Goondi and completed its final crush in 1986 before being preserved for museum display.

Location

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Rollingstock

Name	Builder	Model	Serial	Year	Current Mill	Notes
2	Clyde	DHI-71	55-56	1955	South Johnstone Mill	Ex Goondi; later Mulgrave #23 Behana. Returned to South Johnstone and rebuilt in 2016.
3	Clyde	DHI-71	56-90	1956	South Johnstone Mill	Ex Goondi; later Mulgrave #24 Pyramid. Returned to South Johnstone and rebuilt in 2016.
12	Clyde	DHI-71	55-60	1955	South Johnstone Mill	Rebuilt by South Johnstone Mill in 2014.
16	Clyde	DHI-71	56-93	1956	South Johnstone Mill	Fitted for multiple operation.
17	Clyde	DHI-71	55-57	1955	South Johnstone Mill	Fitted for multiple operation.
Sugarworld Shuttle	E.M. Baldwin	DH8B	9109-1-9-80	1980	Victoria Mill	Goondi Mill -> Hambledon Mill -> Victoria Mill
1	John Fowler		18260	1929	Out of service	Preserved; LRRSA recorded at Australian Narrow Gauge Railway Museum Society, Woodford (2011).
Hambledon	E.M. Baldwin	DH12	8002-1-8-78	1978	Out of service	Built new for Goondi Mill as #6 in 1978 for yard shunting. Transferred to Hambledon Mill in 1987 as #7 and to Victoria Mill in 1991, where it became known as HAMBLEDON. Later dismantled as a locomotive; its chassis was fitted with a Klam electromagnetic retarder and alternator in 2007 for conversion to a prototype brake wagon.