{"id":71971,"date":"2025-08-16T05:25:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T05:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/71971\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T05:25:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T05:25:14","slug":"cane-fires-return-as-qld-growers-battle-to-harvest-last-years-poor-crop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/71971\/","title":{"rendered":"Cane fires return as Qld growers battle to harvest last year’s poor crop"},"content":{"rendered":"

A still smoke haze hangs in the air as cane farmer Bill Holding raises his voice to address the gathered crowd.<\/p>\n

“Standover fires are probably one of the best fires you’ll see \u2014 super heat, big flames, heaps of warmth,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve probably had 50 years of lighting fires, but I don’t do it much anymore. It’s all green cane harvesting.”<\/p>\n

Once a common farm practice, pre-harvest burning is now largely a tourist attraction, but not for this group gathered in a paddock at Calen, about 50 kilometres north of Mackay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Walking in the wake of the cane fire he is lighting, Bill explains the history to the spectators, but also why this year, farmers have returned to the burn.<\/p>\n

\"Five<\/p>\n

Locals and tourists watched the fire as the sun set. (ABC Rural: Liam McNally)<\/p>\n

The first spark<\/p>\n

The first cane fire in Australia was an accident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1897, the newly completed Mossman Mill<\/a> crushed its first cane ahead of schedule, after a fire burned through Mrs Annie Rose’s crop at Bonnie Doon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the time, the crop was cut by hand, using thousands of indentured South Sea Islanders<\/a> either kidnapped or misled into coming to Australia. \u00a0<\/p>\n

By the 1930s, immigrants from Italy and other European nations had largely replaced those workers, and cane fires remained rare, but not unheard of.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But amid a broader power struggle between the unionised migrant workers and millers and farm owners, burning cane became a battlefield.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

During cane fires the crop “trash” burns away, leaving only the woodier cane sticks. (ABR Rural: Liam McNally)<\/p>\n

An epidemic of Weil’s disease, otherwise known as leptospirosis<\/a>, was being spread by rats in the cane fields of Ingham \u2014 and cane cutters were dying.<\/p>\n

A 1934 article in the Medical Journal of Australia reported 138 cases of the bacteria that can cause jaundice, kidney failure and bleeding from the lungs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Burning was recommended to eradicate the rats but the industry resisted, worried it would hurt the value of the crop at a time when prices were already crashing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Strikes broke out, and in 1936 an Industrial Court order made burning before harvest mandatory in certain conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By the end of World War II, cane fires had become standard practice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The fire roared through the cane field within minutes of being lit. (ABC Rural: Liam McNally)<\/p>\n

By Bill’s time, harvesting had moved from hand-cutting to mechanical,<\/a> but burning was still commonplace to remove “trash” like loose and dead leaves and weeds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But there was growing pressure from opponents concerned about the risk of escaped fires, ash falls, lowered air quality and the overall environmental impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Sugarcane<\/p>\n

Cane fires were a way of life for farmers like Bill Holding before green harvesting took over. (ABC Rural: Liam McNally)<\/p>\n

By the 1990s, new harvester technology allowed farmers to embrace cutting green.<\/p>\n

“It was better for the environment, better for moisture retention, better for everything,” Bill said.<\/p>\n

Despite largely moving on, this season’s farmers are once again reaching for the drip torch, reigniting the old technique.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Return of the burn<\/p>\n

Grower representative group Canegrowers estimated 85 per cent of Queensland’s cane was now green harvested, though cane fires are still regularly used in parts of the Burdekin and NSW.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The exception is standover cane \u2014 older plantings left in the paddock that could not be harvested the year before.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Drip torches are used to start sugarcane fires. (ABC Rural: Liam McNally)<\/p>\n

In districts like Mackay there is an abundance of standover cane left behind from a troubled crush, plagued by wet weather and mill breakdowns. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“Last year was probably the most standover we’ve left in a long, long time,” Mackay Canegrowers chairman Joseph Borg said.<\/p>\n

“There’s no doubt that you’ll see constant cane fires throughout the whole season this year.”\"A<\/p>\n

The smoke from a cane fire has a distinctive sweet smell. (ABC Rural: Liam McNally)<\/p>\n

To conduct a cane burn, Joseph said typically two people would don firefighting equipment and head out at night, when it is cooler and easier to spot stray sparks.<\/p>\n

“It is a fine art,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The older guys, it’s amazing what they can do with a drip torch and how they can make fire draw into itself.<\/p>\n

“They know how to make fire work for you rather than against you.”<\/p>\n

The dried leaf trash burns from the outside in, eventually running out of fuel because woodier green cane sticks will not burn.<\/p>\n

\"Guests<\/p>\n

Guest sat along the dam and enjoyed food, drinks and live music at A Night in the Cane Fields. (ABC Rural: Liam McNally)<\/p>\n

Farmers need a permit to burn, and Joseph said the wider community also needed to be informed about the risks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“These fires are visually spectacular, make no mistake about that \u2014 the smell of the air, the crackling, and they’re huge fires,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The town has certainly expanded over the last 25 years into the rural areas \u2026 people have never seen it before.”<\/p>\n

He urged inquisitive spectators to slow down if driving near a fire, and account for the smoke.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One cane farm has opted to manage the crowds mesmerised by their dazzling spectacle by turning it into a ticketed event.<\/p>\n

A Night in the Cane Fields<\/p>\n

Gathered on the banks of a picturesque dam at Oh Deere Farm Stay in Calen, hundreds of people waited for the burn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Children played on swings as parents chatted in camp chairs, near the barbecue, a full bar and a live band.<\/p>\n

As the sun went down, Bill Holding helped light up the cane paddock.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Static crackling gave way to a flame that towered over the field and ripped across the horizon. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Within minutes, the skyline calmed and a smoky dusk settled \u2014 the only flames now glowing campfires attended into the evening.<\/p>\n

\"Families<\/p>\n

Cane fires are now rare, with 85 per cent of the crop cut green. (ABC Rural: Liam McNally)<\/p>\n

Owner Karinda Anderson farmed in Tasmania before moving to Calen nine years ago, adding the farm stay alongside the cane production.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Four years ago, she started offering farm tours, but this was the first public cane burning event she had hosted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rise in burns this year was an exception, but grower Joseph Borg said the industry would always be adaptable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Our industry has been around for 100 years \u2026 hopefully it’ll be there for another hundred,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A still smoke haze hangs in the air as cane farmer Bill Holding raises his voice to address…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[56339,64,63,56341,56340,56336,75,56338,128,56337,6015],"class_list":["post-71971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-a-night-in-the-cane-fields","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-burning-cane","tag-cane-crops","tag-cane-fire","tag-environment","tag-queensland-cane-fields","tag-science","tag-standover-cane","tag-sugar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}