{"id":732013,"date":"2026-06-12T14:34:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T14:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/732013\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T14:34:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T14:34:21","slug":"mackay-sugar-mills-shut-by-cyber-attack-hope-to-reopen-next-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/732013\/","title":{"rendered":"Mackay Sugar mills shut by cyber attack hope to reopen next week"},"content":{"rendered":"

A north Queensland sugar miller crippled by a cybersecurity attack says it hopes to resume production next week.<\/p>\n

Mackay Sugar shut down two of its three mills at Farleigh and Racecourse early Wednesday morning after finding operating systems had been compromised.<\/p>\n

The company said it was progressively restoring critical systems and anticipated a staged resumption of harvesting and crushing operations from next week.<\/p>\n

“Specialist cyber security experts continue to work alongside our teams and relevant authorities to investigate the incident and restore systems safely,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A cane locomotive with loaded bins heading to Marian Mill. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

The company said it had reported the incident to authorities.<\/p>\n

“We recognise the impact this incident is having on our growers, and we are doing everything we can to support them and to safely resume full operations as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n

Race to process cut cane<\/p>\n

Mackay Sugar said it had recommenced limited manual crushing at the Farleigh Mill to process cane harvested before the cyber attack.<\/p>\n

Sugar cane must be processed within a set period after being harvested to avoid the loss of sugar content.<\/p>\n

“While some operations have resumed in a controlled manner, key cane supply and logistics systems remain subject to ongoing restoration and no additional cane is being accepted at our mills at this stage,” the company said.<\/p>\n

“Our immediate focus remains the safety of our people, protecting operational systems, and maintaining business continuity.”<\/p>\n

Tony Bugeja has 330 hectares under cane on the family property at Palmyra near Mackay.<\/p>\n

\"Cane<\/p>\n

Tony Bugeja says he is worried about the knock-on effects of the delay. (ABC Rural: David Sparkes)<\/p>\n

The second-generation cane farmer said he was due to start harvesting on Thursday, and the delay caused by the cyber attack was concerning.<\/p>\n

“Looking at it, we’re going to lose at least a week,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said it was important to begin harvesting as early as possible to take advantage of high sugar levels and purity, which helped offset a lower sugar price.<\/p>\n

“I’m sure everybody is in the same vein,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We need to get it off as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n

Threat to regional communities growing<\/p>\n

Jason King, a former Australian Federal Police officer with 15 years’ experience with cybercrime, said hackers were a growing threat to regional communities.<\/p>\n

“They go outside the cities now because we have got big infrastructure here; we have got power stations, we have got the sugar industry,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s not [a risk] just to metropolitan areas, it’s worldwide.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jason King says hackers can find regional communities attractive targets. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Mr King believed Mackay Sugar’s extensive infrastructure, including its three sugar mills, made it an attractive target.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got so many different players; workers, sugar growers, cane trains, so many different elements to its operation,” he said.<\/p>\n

“[A cyber attack] can bring the industry to its knees.”<\/p>\n

Growers told to manage expectations<\/p>\n

Canegrowers Mackay chairman Joseph Borg said he had been advised Mackay Sugar was working towards having all three mills running “in the latter half of next week”.<\/p>\n

Mr Borg said cane farmers had been warned not to expect too much, too early.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jospeh Borg says details of a plan to restart crushing next week were shared on Friday. (ABC Tropical North: Liam O’Connell)<\/p>\n

“It is an ongoing, ever-moving situation, albeit very slow-moving.<\/p>\n

“They have made significant progress this morning”.<\/p>\n

Mackay Sugar is Australia’s second-largest raw sugar producer, with almost 1,300 mainly family owned farms supplying its three mills.<\/p>\n

The company typically processes about 700,000 tonnes of raw sugar a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A north Queensland sugar miller crippled by a cybersecurity attack says it hopes to resume production next week.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":732014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,354240,43671,354239,13330,18566,354237,354238,354241,6015,354242],"class_list":["post-732013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-computer-crime","tag-cyber-attack","tag-farleigh-mill","tag-farming","tag-mackay-sugar","tag-marian-mill","tag-racecourse-mill","tag-ransomeware","tag-sugar","tag-sugarecane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732013","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=732013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/732014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}