May 22, Mackay, Sarina

We were fortunate to find a parking place downtown this morning that was close to the Heritage Tour. We were early so we walked around and wandered into the Anglican Church. We met, Ann, the rector, who told us a little about the church and parish. Female priests are more common in eastern Queensland, in Mackay, its 2 of the 5.

The guides were John and John, volunteers at the visitors center. We walked around and they pointed out buildings and told stories about the history of Mackay. It was very entertaining. There was a massive cyclone in 1918 that almost destroyed the town, so few buildings remain from before that. There was a fire in the 1920s that destroyed a lot of buildings. Many of the historical buildings now are Art Deco buildings from the 1920s and 30s.

We stopped at an old sugar warehouse by the river. There were holes drilled in the wooden floor, above the water. At one time rum was stored in barrels on the floor and thieves drilled into them to steal the rum. The owner had a crab trap in the water and when she pulled it up, she had a few mud crabs in it. They weren't large enough to keep, though.

One of our stops was at the Anglican Church Parish Hall, at one time the center of community life in Mackay. We met Olive, who told us about the dances that were held there. She met her husband at one of the dances, as did any other older residents of town.

We left Mackay to drive south to Sarina. There was large sugar mill there, but we stopped to see the miniature sugar mill. Sara gave us a tour that included some old machinery used in the cane fields: one to pick up long canes and put them in wagons to take to the mill; a couple of harvesters, one from the 1920s and a Massey Ferguson from the 50s; and a planter that dug the furrow, put cut cane and fertilizer into it and covered it.

In the miniature mill part, Sara squeezed cane juice from a stalk of cane so we could have a taste - it was green and sweet tasting. Then she told us about the rest of the refining process. The little mill works, but they cane isn't ready to harvest yet, so we saw films instead. Then we were able to taste molasses, treacle (tastes like light molasses) and golden cane syrup (used on pancakes and in baking). There was a display of the crystallized sugar products; white sugar, caster sugar (finer crystals), raw sugar, brown sugar, and coffee sugarż. Brown and coffee sugar are white sugars with molasses added for color. Coffee sugar has large crystals.

The miniature also distills the cane syrup to produce liquors, vodka and schnapps. And they make chutneys and relishes and sauces.

We drove a couple of hundred kms after that and are at another crowded rest area. For dinner, I made a shrimp dish using a sweet chili, lime sauce I bought at the mill. It was really good and a welcome change from our usual fare.

Pictures - Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Interior, Mud crabs, Clothing store, Art Deco facade of Ambassador Hotel, cane planter, Sara extracting juice from sugar cane