Mossman Cane Farmers & Town in Crisis - We need your help!

Please give today-big or small-We are not giving up!

Video Credit: James Stapledon | Creative Director | Refresh Films - thank you for donating your time & expertise. You captured the reality.

Mossman Mill went into liquidation earlier this year - leaving 130 mill employees without jobs, 60 cane growers without a livelihood or income - and a community facing an uncertain future. The closure of the mill is having a devastating impact on our small township, Mossman. A community who have been totally reliant on the sugar industry for the past 131 years. The cane farmers have been left in uncertain times and under distress for what the future holds. They need your support to help "Get the Crop Crushed" in 2024 and help overcome the town fears that this will be the final harvest.

Many of the farmers are currently heavily in debt - as the makeshift arrangements with MSF to transport cane to Mulgrave Mill in Gordanvale - at the farmers' expense - will not even cover their debts let alone provide any income to make way for a "transition" within the agricultural industry. The cost of the transport to Mulgrave will be over $9Million. After a petition and many meetings, the government is thankfully assisting. However, these funds cover only half of these costs - which are purely to transport the crop.

Financial distress continues to rise before the crop is cut - as many farmers had to construct loading platforms so that the tippers can load cane into the semi-trailers going to Mulgrave - at a cost of over $1/2 Million Dollars - also, at the expense and financial detriment to the cane farmers.

You can help give hope to the Mossman Canefarmers through these difficult times and reduce the burden of the mill's closure.

ALL PROCEEDS GO TO THE MOSSMAN CANE GROWERS FUND SUPPORTING ALL MOSSMAN CANE FARMERS.

One farmer's plea, "We are just broken hearted that the heart of our little town has stopped beating. The mill was like family and a part of our identity and we have lost a big piece of our lives. That is very difficult to accept. We are calling on the generosity of our fellow farmers to help us out in this crisis as we do whenever our neighbours are hit by cyclones, floods, droughts or fires. Australians always help each other when we are down, and we need your help now."

Donate whatever you can to help the farmers. Every little bit counts - but most of all, knowing that other people care about the lives of others, families, communities and the agricultural industry and that you have their backs - is priceless. Donate today.

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Please read through some of the farmer's stories below.

"I had always wanted to follow my grandparents and parents footsteps cane farming in Mossman so I relocated my family a few years ago and bought a sugar cane farm. Needless to say, I would never have done that if I knew that the Mossman Mill would no longer to be operating a few years down the track.

This has left me devastated as I have committed all my savings to grow cane in Mossman. It is absolutely gut wrenching, and I have no idea where to turn to next and what my little family is going to do to survive. I find it really hard to talk about and even harder to face the reality of it every morning."

3rd generation farmer

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"We were just recovering from the extensive flood damage to our property after one of the worst cyclone seasons in history only to be told the mill was closing. There was so much physical devastation still to be cleared up but like most farmers, we pushed on with our cropping and getting ready for the coming season. I have lost a lot of headlands where there used to be cane and this farm has been in my family for 70 plus years. I feel like all that family heritage has just been washed away and all those generations of back breaking work all for nothing. We are absolutely heart broken and have no idea where to turn next."

3rd Generation Farmer

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"My Husband and I have been involved in the sugar industry for well over 40 years and his parents and grandparents for well over 80 years. The sugar industry is our livelihood, or should I say was our livelihood - as it was for every sugar cane farmer in Mossman.

It is sad to see that all the hard work, sweat and tears put into clearing the land in the early days and then planting and seeing the sugar industry in Mossman evolve over 130 years has come to a sudden halt. There are not enough words to describe the impact of the closing of the Mossman Sugar Mill has had on us and all the farmers in the Mossman sugar industry and the community.

Sugar Cane farmers including ourselves have been left distraught with loans to pay and frightened as to what the future now holds and where our next dollar will be coming from.

Who would think that on the onset of retirement age, which is supposed to be a time to finally relax and enjoy the rest of your life has left us mentally strained and exhausted wondering what the future now holds for us.

To think that the farm would now pass to the next generation - stops right here - and the first generation of sugar cane farmers would probably turn in their grave knowing that all their hard work from generation to generation can no longer continue.

Please help us."

3rd Generation Farmers

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Thank you for reading and taking time to show your support. Donate now.

Photos above supplied by farmers.

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Mossman Mill is the most northerly sugar mill in Queensland and one of the oldest being erected under the Sugar Works guarantee Act of 1893. The Macknade mill near Ingham was built in 1873 and the first mill was built in Cleveland, Brisbane in 1864 so there is a long history of sugar cane in the region.

Mossman Mill had been battling for the past 10 years with many contributing factors - decrease in tonnage of cane, government funds designated for valuing adding and yes, the ageing mill was in much need of some TLC. Then, recent cyclone flooding causing additional damage, and more rain, more rain, more rain. The farmers gave some of their own income to keep the place going. The local growers, were desperately hoping that a Bio-company would purchase the mill to ensure a sustainable future - but that never eventuated...

DONATE NOW - YOUR HELP IS NEEDED!

Photo supplied by Mossman Canegrowers