Peri Sugar Mill, 1885

A mill was erected on Peri plantation in 1885 however it never crushed. The plantation was made up of a number of small blocks bought up by Thomas Henry Fitzgerald. Timber clearing began in 1872. The land drained and broken up using bullock teams. Thomas Fitzgerald's son, John F. W. Fitzgerald, took over the property in 1873.

By June 1874 a good crop of Bourbon cane was growing. This cane was twelve feet high and nine inches in circumference. Fitzgerald was about to erect a mill at Peri when rust struck the district. He had interests in several mills but had moved too fast and went broke. He left the district in 1876. The Melbourne Mackay Sugar Company took over the plantation and erected a mill about1885. It was valued in 1888 at £8,000 and was manufactured by "Mirrlees, Watson and Fletcher of Glasgow". The mill may have been constructed from plant from other mills that had closed down in the district already.

Due to falling sugar prices the mill never crushed.

References -

Kerr, John. (1988). A Century of Sugar. Mackay, QLD: Mackay Sugar Co-operative Association Limited. p. 46.

Kerr, John. (1980). Pioneer Pageant. Mackay, QLD: Pioneer Shire Council. p. 54, 72, 99.

Manning, K.W. (1983). In Their Own Hands. Farleigh, QLD: Farleigh Co-op Milling Association Ltd. p. 21, 23, 78.

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