CSR Limited

A collection of hundreds of black-and-white photographs documenting the history of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company's involvement in the sugar industry from the 1870's to the 1970's. Founded in Sydney in 1855, the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR) first began refining imported raw sugar, expanding into the Melbourne market in the 1870s. Over the next two decades, mills were established in Queensland and Fiji, which began to process domestically-grown sugar. In 1923, the Queensland state government signed an agreement with CSR to refine all of that state's sugar production, a monopoly that was to continue until 1989. Mills outside Queensland were sold in the 1970s. Until 2010, the refined sugar products for the retail market were produced in a joint venture with Mackay Sugar Co-Operative (75% controlled by CSR), who operate refineries in Mackay (Queensland), and Melbourne. The CSR brand is used on most of the retail sugar products produced. CSR began to diversify into building products in 1942. It also distills ethanol using the molasses by-product from the sugar mills. Its corporate headquarters are in North Ryde (Triniti 3 Building), a suburb of Sydney. In December 2010, CSR sold its sugar and ethanol business, Sucrogen, to the Singaporean company Wilmar. This photo collection constitutes a fascinating and historically significant record of CSR and the sugar industry. It depicts various sugar industry practices such as plant breeding, cane cultivation, cane cutting and refining. It also contains many historical images of CSR facilities, as well as images of rural locations in Fiji and Queensland depicting the living conditions, lesuire activities and community life of company employees. The collection also consititutes an important documentation of the early history of the Indo-Fijian people, who were taken from India to Fiji as contract laborers following the British subjugation of the islands in 1874. The photos have been made available in TIFF format by the Archives Program of the Australian National University.
Type
Collection
Title
CSR Limited
Alternate Title
Colonial Sugar Refining Company
Collection Type
Collection
Access Privileges
The Australian National University Library
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
10.4225/13/50BBF0BE251D2
Website Address
https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/40
Metadata Language
English
Data Language
English
Significance Statement
A large collection of images constituting a significant documentary record of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR), the Australian sugar industry, the lives of sugar industry workers, and the history of agriculture and migrant labour in Fiji and Australia.
Brief Description
A collection of hundreds of black-and-white photographs documenting the history of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company's involvement in the sugar industry from the 1870's to the 1970's. The images depict CSR's facilities, its work practices, the lives of its employees (including the Indo-Fijians), and numerous locations in Queensland and Fiji.
Full Description
A collection of hundreds of black-and-white photographs documenting the history of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company's involvement in the sugar industry from the 1870's to the 1970's. Founded in Sydney in 1855, the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR) first began refining imported raw sugar, expanding into the Melbourne market in the 1870s. Over the next two decades, mills were established in Queensland and Fiji, which began to process domestically-grown sugar. In 1923, the Queensland state government signed an agreement with CSR to refine all of that state's sugar production, a monopoly that was to continue until 1989. Mills outside Queensland were sold in the 1970s. Until 2010, the refined sugar products for the retail market were produced in a joint venture with Mackay Sugar Co-Operative (75% controlled by CSR), who operate refineries in Mackay (Queensland), and Melbourne. The CSR brand is used on most of the retail sugar products produced. CSR began to diversify into building products in 1942. It also distills ethanol using the molasses by-product from the sugar mills. Its corporate headquarters are in North Ryde (Triniti 3 Building), a suburb of Sydney. In December 2010, CSR sold its sugar and ethanol business, Sucrogen, to the Singaporean company Wilmar. This photo collection constitutes a fascinating and historically significant record of CSR and the sugar industry. It depicts various sugar industry practices such as plant breeding, cane cultivation, cane cutting and refining. It also contains many historical images of CSR facilities, as well as images of rural locations in Fiji and Queensland depicting the living conditions, lesuire activities and community life of company employees. The collection also consititutes an important documentation of the early history of the Indo-Fijian people, who were taken from India to Fiji as contract laborers following the British subjugation of the islands in 1874. The photos have been made available in TIFF format by the Archives Program of the Australian National University.
Contact Email
butlin.archives@anu.edu.au
Contact Address
Menzies Building #2 The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Australia
Contact Phone Number
+61 2 6125 2219
Contact Fax Number
+61 2 6125 0140
Fields of Research
210303 - Australian History (excl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History); 210313 - Pacific History (excl. New Zealand and Maori); 070399 - Crop and Pasture Production not elsewhere classified
Socio-Economic Objective
950306 - Conserving Pacific Peoples Heritage; 820304 - Sugar; 950304 - Conserving Intangible Cultural Heritage
Keywords
agriculture; Australia; Colonial Sugar Refining Company; CSR; CSR Limited; cultivation; Fiji; Indo-Fijians; mill; photography; plant breeding; Pyrmont; Queensland; Rarawai; seedling raising; Sucrogen; sugar; sugar cane; sugar refining
Date Coverage
1973
1855
Geospatial Location
Australia; Fiji
text
Date of data creation
1973
Year of data publication
2007
Creator(s) for Citation
CSR Limited
Publisher for Citation
Australian National University Archives Program
Related Websites
Australian National University Archives
http://anulib.anu.edu.au/archives/
History of CSR
http://www.sucrogen.com/about/history
Rights held in and over the data
The images in this collection are provided for research purposes only and must not be reproduced without the prior permission of the Archives Program, Australian National University.
Data Location
https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/40/browse?type=dateissued&submit_browse=Issue+date
Retention Period
Indefinitely

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Identifier: anudc:4854

Status: Published
Published to:
  • Australian National Data Service
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