Our History
The CANEGROWERS organisation has a lengthy history of achievement on behalf of Queensland cane farming families.
The organisation was formally constituted in 1925 and restructured in 1926 although the need for a body to exclusively represent the interests of sugarcane growers was recognised at least 15 years earlier.
The passing of the miller plantation system and the opening of new lands by small farmers along Queensland’s coast was an era of struggle and heartbreak as well as achievement. Discontent among small farmers at their treatment by large mill owners prompted talk of forming a growers-only body to protect their interests.
In 1906 the Townsville Chamber of Commerce convened a meeting of farmers, millers and miller planters that resulted in the formation of the now defunct Australian Sugar Producers Association (ASPA). It soon became apparent that the miller-grower membership would prevent ASPA from siding with growers in disputes with mill owners. Consequently, growers began advocating ‘the urgent need for some representative body which would be able to speak with a voice of authority’ on behalf of growers. Groups of growers began forming representative bodies for small farmers.
In 1909, growers from Cairns, Mackay, Bundaberg, Isis, Maryborough and Northern New South Wales met in Bundaberg for the first conference of the Sugar Cane Growers Union of Australia. Although the fledgling organisation did not flourish, the seeds were sown for a strong organisation to represent cane growers exclusively. That dream became a reality on 14 December 1914 in Mackay when the United Cane Growers Association (UCGA) was formed at a meeting convened by the Pioneer River Farmers Association.
The UCGA expanded rapidly throughout the industry. An office was established in Brisbane in 1918 and the first General Secretary appointed.
In September that year 1918 the UCGA appointed the Producer’s Review (forerunner to Australian Canegrower) as its official journal. Annual Conferences were held from 1916 to 1927 when the organisation was disbanded following establishment in 1926 under Queensland Government legislation of a new growers’ organisation - now known as CANEGROWERS.
The Government moved to establish CANEGROWERS and other similar bodies because of the poor state of Queensland agriculture after World War I. Although there was great potential for rural expansion, poor organisation of production and marketing was restricting progress. The Government concluded that unified organisation and representation of primary producers was essential to establish prosperous rural industries.
In March 1922, Premier EG Theodore announced a scheme for the complete re-organisation of agriculture to kick-start rural expansion as the engine of State economic and population growth.
A provisional Council of Agriculture was constituted, comprising representatives of government and the dairying, cane growing, fruit growing, wheat and general agricultural industries. In 1925, Local Producers Associations were organised on a commodity basis for the various industries. The Queensland Cane Growers Council (QCGC), District Executives and Mill Suppliers’ Committees were constituted for the sugar industry.
The original legislation was superceded in 1926 by the Primary Producers Organisation and Marketing Act which established the CANEGROWERS Council, District Executives and Mill Suppliers Committees in a form which would last for nearly 75 years. The Act also formed marketing boards for other rural industries.
The first meeting of the Queensland Cane Growers Council was held in The Boys’ School, Mackay, on 21 January 1926, presided over by President of the Council of Agriculture, Hon. W.Forgan Smith. First Annual Conference of the Queensland Cane Growers Association was held in Mackay in March 1927 chaired by George Johnson who served as QCGC Chairman from 1926 to 1946.
