As you head along the A1 Highway in Queensland, sugar cane farms are a predominant feature. With so much sugar about how could we turn up an offer to visit a sugar mill? Perhaps the sweetest place on earth.

It was fascinating to see how the sugar cane is ground to a pulp, the juice extracted, cleaned, heated and evaporated to produce the raw sugar. The sugar refining process and equipment has changed little over the past 80 years.  The biggest advancement has been a move from manual labour to a fully automated process. The sugar mill we visited in Mackay was still using equipment installed in the 1950s and 60s.

It was also interesting to see how the sugar pulp is used to heat the boilers, much of the steam is cooled and the water recycled, the ash from the boilers and dirt collected during the cleaning process is used to make a mulch which is sold back to the famers. Therefore it is almost an entirely closed loop system with almost no waste. The molasses, a by-product of producing the raw sugar is used in human and animal food products.

Overall, it was a hot, smelly and tasty experience. I especially enjoyed tasting the different grades of molasses which varied from caramel to liquorice flavours.