CSR Refinery, New Farm

CSR Refinery is a heritage-listed former refinery at Lamington Street, New Farm, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1892 to 1893. It is also known as Colonial Sugar Refining Company Refinery of New Farm. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

The CSR Refinery at New Farm was erected by the Colonial Sugar Refinery Company in 1892–1893. Founded in Sydney in 1855, the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (now CSR Limited) has come to dominate the Australian sugar industry, its very name synonymous with sugar. The 19th century was a time of enormous change in the history of sugar which was to fuel the growth of companies such as CSR and the development of sugar as a new industry in places with suitable growing conditions such as Queensland. The technological advances in the refining process at this time transformed sugar from a luxury item to a staple food and saw a corresponding dramatic increase in the consumption of sugar in western countries. Attempts at growing sugar cane had been made in Queensland prior to separation, however it was Captain Louis Hope's success in the 1860s which saw government encouragement of the growing of sugar cane in the colony. Plantations developed in the Cleveland, Beenleigh, and Caboolture districts and new areas along the coast quickly opened up including by the 1870s in the Maryborough, Bundaberg, and Mackay districts with sugar refining beginning on a small scale with the opening of the Yengarie sugar mill near Maryborough in 1873 and later the Millaquin refinery at Bundaberg in 1882. By 1874, Queensland was exporting sugar to other Australian colonies. By the 1880s sugar was being grown further north in the Burdekin River, Herbert River, and Cairns districts. Moreover, encouraged by Queensland Premier Thomas McIlwraith, southern capital and advanced technology was beginning to reach northern plantations. The most important of these southern companies was the Colonial Sugar Refining Company who acquired large tracts of land for the cultivation of sugar in the Mackay district and established 3 large mills in North Queensland. From the 1860s-1880s, Queensland's sugar industry was dominated by plantations owned by companies or wealthy individuals who usually cultivated large areas of cane and operated their own mills; Pacific Islanders comprised the majority of the workforce. By the 1890s, encouraged by government policy (including the promotion of small land holdings, the encouragement of the establishment of central mills owned by small producers, and moves to exclude the use of Pacific Islander labour) the plantation system was no longer dominant; the industry was increasingly characterised by a division between the growing of the cane by small land owners and the milling and refining by large planters or companies. This change was typified by CSR who reorganised their interests to concentrate more on the value adding end of the market i.e. milling and refining. CSR's Brisbane refinery was the fourth in a chain of refineries established by the company in Australia's capital cities in the late 19th century; refineries were opened in Sydney (Pyrmont 1878 which became the largest in Australia), Melbourne (Yarraville; purchased c.1875), and Adelaide (Glanville 1891). A refinery in Perth was added in 1930 to complete the chain. According to company records the establishment of the Brisbane refinery was closely linked to the imposition of prohibitive duties on sugar products (in particular recent increases in taxes on syrup and molasses) which would have substantially compromised CSR's share in the golden syrup market in Queensland. The establishment of a local refinery had the added benefit of enabling the company to compete in the refined sugar markets

Monument data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).