Sights of Bowen and Ayr Queensland Australia

<body bgcolor="#000000" text="#FFFFFF"> <p align="center"><font size="4">Frames must be enabled in your browser to properly view this page. Traveling up the coast of Queensland, one see field after field of sugar cane..and chances are you will see it being harvested. We were able to document that process. Bowen is a community you will go through. Bowen is famous for the wall murals on the buildings downtown that chronacles their history. One might find catcus in bloom on the beach...or a blonde. After sugar cane is harvested and put in wheeled baskets, he takes them to the cane railroad spur near his property and puts them on the tracks. Each basket has a number on it and the farmer enters the numbers in a book that is there at the siding. From time to time the train comes and adds the cars (wheeled baskets). Eventually the train reaches the local sugar cane mill. The cart if turned upside down and emptied with the cart number entered into the computer. An analysis is performed to determine the sugar content of that cane and the farmer's account is paid based on that amount. The cane then is lifted to the top of the mill on a conveyor where it is dropped into the crusher and mixed with water. It is crushed and recrushed three times to remove the last remnants of syrup. The syrup is concentrated by a vacuum process that removes the water and put in a large drum which is heated...the sugar sticks to the revolving heated drum whose walls are scraped. The resulting granules are raw sugar. The residue of the cane crushing is used differently depending on what mill is doing the process. Some mills recycle the result and put it back on the cane fields as fertilizer and mulch. Others use this as a fuel in their boilers and any left over electricity generated is sold to the electric utility. Raw sugar is available in the grocery all over Australia. It is brown in color and the granules are larger than refined white sugar. It is very nice in coffee or hot tea. The white pipe in the picture moves the raw sugar from the mill to the storage area where it will eventually be loaded onto ships for export . Other mills create sugar syrup or (sorghum) which is used by the processed foods industry and is shipped by rail to where ever it is sold. Some mills have exhibits of vintage steam engines used in the cane railway system. The guage of the cane railroad is only about 3 foot. The cars either hold 4 or 8 tons of cane. Passing through cane country, if it is smokey, they burn the trash at the base of the sugar cane a few hours before harvesting. These firings are quite spectacular in the evening before harvesting. The field is lighted and it instantly goes up in flame...and is almost as instantly burned out. If you intend to witness a firing..check ahead..so you can be there...it isn't enough to be within a mile of it..cause it will be out before you get there. Other areas do not fire the cane but simply cut the cane and leave the trash. Deadly Taipan snakes can be in the cane and before mechanized farming led to the deaths of many cane cutters. It is thought the firing will kill the snakes.</font></p> <script type="text/javascript">  </script> <noscript> <img src="/cgi-bin/ax.cgi?trans.gif" height="1" width="1" alt="" /> </noscript>