General News
5 December, 2025
Bin bought for history
Plans to make relic of sugarcane industry special feature in park
A RUSTING, unsightly sugar cane bin on the Captain Cook Highway near Mossman has been saved from obscurity.
Douglas Shire Historical Society member Pam Willis Burden has bought the dirty yellow bin on steel wheels – called bogeys – currently at the Mt Molloy turnoff, South Mossman.
With the unsold Mossman mill in decay and the once lush green cane fields being poisoned and ploughed for other crops, the history of Mossman agriculture is slowly being lost, according to Ms Willis Burden.
She said the bin was “not to put in my front garden”.
“Derelict cane bins, once used to haul harvested cane to the mill, now litter the rails beside the highway, with weeds growing inside. It’s a very sad sight,” Ms Willis Burden said.
The bogeys that once supported the cane bins were recently sent to scrap dealers in Wagga Wagga, each containing valuable steel to be melted down. As a result, the bins were left, some piled on top of one another along the road between Killaloe and Mossman.
“It seems like they didn’t finish the job,” Ms Willis Burden said.
“All the train engines, also known as locos, have been purchased and trucked away down the highway to southern mills.”
Some committee members of the Douglas Shire Historical Society are still not sure about the future of the bin, although there have been financial donations from members.
As a result, Ms Willis Burden has gone ahead alone, hearing a rumour that possibly an auction is soon to be held and fearing that another piece of Mossman’s history will be bought and sent away.
She has approached the Douglas Shire Council for non-financial support to assist her idea to display the renovated bin in a Mossman park, possibly at the southern entrance to town, or in the George Davis Park opposite St David’s Church alongside the statue of the cane cutter.
“Explanatory signage will detail the massive impact the cane industry had on the Shire,” Ms Willis Burden said.
She said she had asked council managers if it was possible to provide interim storage at the Mossman depot, or wherever officers choose, for restoration work. The council is looking at possible parks for the bin. An ideal location would be the park at the southern entry to Mossman, but this is controlled by the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR), so it is not an option.
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