Schools Gearing up With Cane

By Joseph Borg, Chairman, CANEGROWERS Mackay
The year just seems to be flying already and January is long in our rear vision mirror.  
This time of year also marks the beginning of the school year and with students returning, it is timely to give an update on the Sweetest Schools competition.  The Sweetest Schools competition was launched last year and involves 13 public and private schools spread across the wider Mackay District.  
Alongside Mackay Canegrowers fellow sugarcane organisations Mackay Area Productivity Services, Sugar Research Australia, and the Mackay Show Sugarcane sub-committee have been a massive support in giving the comp legs and helping out schools and grower mentors. Thanks also to the sponsors that have helped out with prize money.
The schools all have small plots of sugarcane growing in their grounds and a grower mentor – also a CANEGROWERS member—visits periodically to assist the students in the growing process. A couple of the grower mentors have reported some lodging of cane during the wet and windy passing of TC Koji, but they are working on tidying up any plot damage and getting the cane back to straight!
In June, all schools involved will be able to enter their cane in a specific competition in the sugarcane section of the regional Mackay Show.  The aim of the program is to allow the sugar industry to engage with students and inform them of the environmental and land management practices and economical credentials of this incredibly diverse and evolving industry.
Our local comp joins similar Sweetest Schools comps across Queensland, including the one run by our neighbour district, CANEGROWERS Proserpine, and also going great guns by all accounts. The comp is a great platform for local schools to connect with our Ag Shows, and with sugarcane growing and agriculture in general.
Also, for teachers out there interested in connecting with the comp for the 2027 show, or with learning materials, we are happy to assist. You can reach our office on 4944 2600, or email mackay@canegrowers.com.au . CANEGROWERS has developed some outstanding teaching resources for primary and secondary students with the Primary Industries Education Foundation Australia (PIEFA).
Finally, it would be remiss of me to not remind the wider Mackay community, that even though the crushing season has finished, dangers around farms and rail lines remain.  There are cane trains still moving around assisting the milling sector as part of their rolling stock and track line maintenance program. They can appear anywhere along the vast track system that winds its way to every sugar-producing corner of the Mackay-Plane Creek area.  Farms are also still busy workplaces, with a variety of dangers and heavy machinery operating and moving around.  
It must also be remembered that farms are people’s back yards not public play grounds and should not be considered peoples own private motorbike or scrub bashing tracks.  Nor is it safe to be swimming in swollen creeks and drains without knowing what dangers lurk below the surface or how fast the current is.  Even the best swimmers can be washed away by a raging current or a log coming down at a great rate of knots.   I am sure that all the wider community wants is for everyone to make it home to their loved ones at the end of every day.  Please stay safe everyone.  All the best.

While cane at one of our entering schools has recovered quite well, it did suffer a little on its windward side during TC Koji.  Pictures: Contributed.

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