Sugar, Anyone?

There were many more speculators than bona-fide settlers among the first landholders in what is now the Litchfield Shire, but some land purchasers did genuinely intend to begin agricultural development.

The government for its part tried hard to encourage agriculture, suggesting that the Top End would, because of its tropical location, be well suited to crops such as sugar, rubber, coffee, tobacco, hemp, maize, rice, arrowroot, peanuts, tea and cotton. Sugar was considered the most likely prospect and in 1875 the government offered a 5,000 pound reward for the first 500 tons of sugar to be grown and milled in the Territory.

Hopeful planters set up on the Cox Peninsula and along the Daly River, but Otto Brandt chose land in what is now the Litchfield Shire, at Shoal Bay. Brandt was the most persistent of the planters and his determination deserved success – but, alas, that was not to be.

In 1883 Brandt planted a trial crop of 20 acres of cane, then he doubled the area in 1884. The early results were so encouraging that in 1885 Brandt brought sugar refining equipment from Queensland and employed about 80 men. The Government Resident inspected the 1885 crop and wrote “None amongst us was prepared for the fine luxuriant crop we saw … we looked down upon about 40 acres of perfect growth, leaving little for the planter to desire. The average height of the cane was nine feet.”

Late in 1885 Brandt planted 250 acres which he harvested and began crushing on 3 July 1886. He had produced 15 tons of low grade sugar before his machinery broke down. The rest of his crop was lost before the mill could be repaired. Then, much of the sugar he had produced was spoilt when the boat carrying it to Darwin was caught in a squall and took in water.

However, the low lying land which Brandt had chosen was salt impregnated and its productivity fell away in later seasons.

In 1890 Brandt leased his land and went to Rum Jungle to try his hand at coffee growing. A man named Moore planted sugar on the Shoal Bay land for the next two years but then abandoned the venture.