Most of the cane farms have disappeared, but the last man standing is the one doing all the laughing this year.
Logan’s last remaining cane farmer Mick Herse says it’s a bumper crop – maybe an omen for the return of the Cane Parade and Gala Dinner after a seven-year hiatus this Saturday.
“It’s been a cracker season for us,” the fifth generation cane farmer said of good winter rainfall.
“The weather is great for us, we’ve got a good crop, the mill goes occasionally, so we’re happy enough with what we’ve achieved.”
The sugar cane industry started in Logan in the 1800s and his family have worked on the same farmlands since 1864.
The one thing that always gets him is the surprise on people’s faces when they hear about cane farming in Logan.
“The amount of people who don’t know there are cane farmers around here, they just have no idea,” he said.
The city will be reminded of its local sugar cane history on Saturday when the Beenleigh Cane Festival returns after seven years.
“It was pointed out to me that as the last cane farmer in Logan, yes, I will be going in the cane parade,” Mr Herse said.
He will be driving one of his cane trucks, joining 50 other floats in parading through the streets of Beenleigh.
“I don’t think the cane parade is about us being put on a pedestal, it is about the community coming together,” he said.
More than 50 floats will parade through George Street before winding through the town square, onto City Road and the grounds of Beenleigh State High School where the floats will be put on display, joined by several food vendors and live entertainment.
Beenleigh Rotary Club is partnering with Logan City Council to run the event.
Festival chair and Rotary Beenleigh’s Janee Hong said the community’s outpouring of support for the event helped bring it back.
“There’s been a big community outcry for this nostalgic festival to come back, with COVID, a lot of people are yearning for that connection to community,” she said.
“We were approached as the Rotary Club of Beenleigh given, we’ve had a resurgence in our members, and we historically have been involved with organising the event.”
The festival last ran in 2014 but dropped off the calendar as organisers at the time struggled to finance it and run it because of member shortages at the Rotary Club.
Beenleigh Rotary Club is rolling out a new ongoing fundraising project called Sugar Sweet Stories during the festival to help youth literacy.
The program will fund the creation of a book based on Beenleigh with features and characters from the area.
“The other aspect is putting together books that will go out to all the local schools to encourage literacy,” Ms Hong said.
Organisers have scaled back the size of the festival to the parade and gala dinner. Ms Hong said they are aiming to eventually return it to the full-day festival it once was.
Previously, the event had a beauty pageant. While it will not be returning this year, organisers hope to introduce fundraising ambassadors for the event to keep it running.
