Day 51: Sweet success

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THERE I was, just sauntering along the riverfront path at New Farm to see where it might take me, when I noticed a white picket fence that looked strangely out of place in this rather modern precinct.

sugar refinery
So that explains the fence.

Once I started to pay a bit more attention, I also noticed an old colonial building and beyond that, a large red brick industrial looking place that was a residential block but obviously had known a previous life.

My curiosity piqued, I looked around and soon found some plaques explaining all.

sugar refinery
River walk with a story to follow

It was the old CSR sugar refinery that had ceased operations only in 1998. The area has quite a story to tell.

sugar refinery
New Farm river walk

New Farm, it turns out, was named for very practical reasons – in 1839 it became the second farm area for Brisbane, Old Farm being in South Brisbane.

The area where I was standing in Teneriffe was low-lying and had been drained in the 1880s.

The Colonial Sugar Refinery, was built in 1893 and fitted out with machinery mainly imported from Scotland.

sugar refinery
Memories of the old refinery

A wharf was built along the riverfront and sugar was exported around the world.

The whole area was industrial at the time but a new vision has seen Teneriffe and its old industrial buildings move into an upmarket residential precinct that has become something of a Millionaire’s Row.

The heritage-registered sugar refinery was converted into apartments called Cutter’s Landing and the old manager’s cottage is now a gym for its residents but from the outside, still evokes another era.

It’s definitely worth a visit, as there are plenty of signs attached to the riverside fencing telling the site’s history.

sugar refinery
Picket fence looks strangely out of place.

The new jetty has inlaid plaques with a timeline of events and, set in a garden, is a series of posts telling fascinating little yarns from the refinery’s heyday.

sugar refinery
Story boards

It value-adds a pleasant walk with lots of good yarns.