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C&BFTCo History
A brief, if fictional, history of the Corinella and Blackwood Tramway Company.
Some real historical notes.
Map of the route of the Corinella and Blackwood Forest Tramway.
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| Contents: Background (1) - General Background (2) - Australia Sugar Beet and Railways The Sugar Beet Industry on the C&BFT |
 Sugar beet farming near Maffra |
Background (1) - General
Sugar Cane has been grown in India since ancient times, there being records of the Persians discovering it in 510BC during an invasion. Sugar came to the attention of Europeans as a result of the Crusades in the 11th century. Due to the difficulties of transporting sugar, it was very much a luxury good in Europe throughout the Middle Ages.The opening up of the Americas to European colonization during the 16th century allowed the development of a sugar cane industry in the Caribbean. This area became the main source of sugar for Europe, however it remained a luxury for most people.
In the mid 18th century German scientists began refining sugar from root vegetables. A number of vegetables were used, including carrots, however the beet showed the most promise. It took the Napoleonic wars at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century to see the establishment of a beet sugar industry. Most of Europe was cut off from the Caribbean by the British naval blockade. Napoleon issued an edict that saw the beet sugar industry established, and it continued to flourish even after the end of the wars in 1815.
By the mid 19th century most of Europe's sugar was produced from beet, and the industry was being established in North America as well. Today 30% of the worlds sugar is produced from beet.
For more information about the sugar industry, click here.
Background (2) - Australia
Several attempts were made to establish a beet sugar industry in Australia during the 19th century. One involved one of the strangest railway construction projects in Australia's history. A line was constructed by private interests from Oakleigh to St Kilda, through what are now parts of Melbourne's inner suburbs. The line saw only one train before being abandoned. The route can still be traced, as much of it was reserved for parkland.|
Only one attempt saw a sustainable industry established, at Maffra, in Victoria's East Gippsland region. The factory was established in 1896, however a severe drought in following years saw it being placed in mothballs till 1910. After re-opening, it showed it's first profit in1917. The factory operated till 1948, by which time farmers found dairying to be a more profitable operation, and beet sugar production ceased. Although the factory has been demolished, the office has been retained as a museum to the industry.
For more infomation about the Maffra sugar beet industry, click here. |
 Maffra's Sugar Beet museum, located in the former factory weighbridge office. |
Sugar Beet and Railways.
Two important factors in the production of beet sugar compared to cane sugar saw substantial differences to how railways related to each industry.The first is in the agricultural practices related to each crop. Sugar cane is a grass, and can be grown on the same ground year after year. Thus plantations cluster closely to the mill, and are typically served by industrial railways (tramways) which serve no other purpose than to bring the harvest from the field to the mill.
Link to information about sugar cane tramways.
| Sugar beet, by contrast, is rotated with other crops, so that a beet crop can be taken from one field only once in every four years. As a result an area four times what is required for cane sugar is required to support a beet sugar mill of the same size. Thus public railways were more often used to transport the beets longer distances than cane was transported. This was the case at Maffra, where photos show numerous Victorian Railways goods wagons being unloaded outside the factory. In Poland very extensive narrow gauge public railways survived until recently largely on the beet traffic. |
Unloading beets in front of the Maffra mill (Victorian Railways photo) |
Secondly, the production of cane sugar produces a waste product, baggase, which is the fibrous material that makes up the cane. This can be burnt to produce the steam and electricity the mill needs to operate, making cane sugar mills self sufficient in energy. No such waste product is produced in the production of beet sugar, so beet sugar mills need fuel to be brought to them, usually in the form of coal.
Lime is used in the production of sugar to remove impurities. One of the lime kilns on the Walhalla line was operated by Colonial Sugar Refineries to supply their Melbourne refinery.
Other than sugar, the only product produced in beet sugar mills is molasses, which can be used as cattle fodder.
The Beet Sugar Industry on the C&BFT
The climate and soil conditions of south-west Gippsland are suitable for the production of sugar beets, so an industry along the C&BFT would have been feasible.Beet production is a rotation, so other rural industries such as dairying would have existed side by side with beet farming. Beets can be transported from any station along the line to the factory.
The mill would also use locally produced coal and lime.
Sugar would have been transported to the broad-gauge interchange in vans, to protect it against the weather.
Molasses may also have been transported to various points on the line as food for local dairy cattle.
In all an industry that will give a lot of operating interest to the C&BFT.