Australia's last grower-owned sugar mill, Isis Central Sugar Mill in Queensland, is seeking a multimillion-dollar government loan to keep operating.

The mill, about four hours' drive north of Brisbane, has crushed cane for 129 years. It employs 250 people in the season and supports more than 1,500 jobs across the supply chain. Its board says it has reached an in-principle agreement with the Queensland government for a loan capped at $9 million, expected to cover expenses until September 2027, just before the end of that year's crush.

The 2026 season has been hit by mechanical problems, including one of the mill's two boilers being out of action for five weeks. The mill aims to crush just under 1.2 million tonnes but was 51,000 tonnes behind schedule two months before the end of the season. Chief executive Simon Brooks said work stoppages added to the strain, but most of the pressure came from world sugar prices: "We're absolutely dependent on the sugar pricing for our revenue."

Brooks wants the federal government to match the state funding, pointing to a business case for a bioenergy precinct next to the mill as part of a strategy to diversify beyond sugar. Transport is another rising cost: about 100 truck trips a day carry cane from Maryborough to rail transfer stations bound for the mill.

About 200 growers from the Fraser Coast to the North Burnett supply the mill, whose throughput rose 50 per cent after Maryborough's local mill closed in 2020. Growers want certainty because cane must be planted two years ahead. Maryborough Canegrowers chair Roger Bambling said another closure would be devastating, and that the mill and growers had to keep talking.

The report was written by Tayla Larsen.

Photo: Queensland State Archives / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Source: ABC Rural