The spread of European settlement in coastal Queensland - The Great Barrier Reef: An Environmental History - page 49

400000

(a)

350000

300000

250000

200000

150000

100000

50000

0

Year

90000

(b)

80000

70000

NITROGEN

60000

50000

40000

30000

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PHOSPHORUS

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00

1900 1910 1920 1940 1970 1930 1950 1960 1980

Year

Figure 4.1 (a) Area of sugar cane grown in Queensland, 1864-1988; (b) Fertiliser
application in the Great Barrier Reef Catchment Area (GBRCA), 1900-1980. Source: Based
on information provided in SCQ , 1864-1900, SSQ , 1901-1915, and Australian Yearbook ,
1916-1988, compiled by P. Griggs; Pulsford (1996, pp16, 22); Furnas (2003, p159)

the sugar industry was restructured: plantation production was replaced by the
small cane farming system. In 1901, the Commonwealth Government legislated
to replace Melanesian workers after 1906 with white labourers only in the
Queensland sugar industry (Griggs, 1997, 1999a, 1999b, 2000).
By 1910, as Figure 4.1(b) illustrates, the application of nitrogenous fertiliser by
sugar cane farmers had commenced in the GBRCA, following the outcome of soil
analyses that were conducted by the Queensland Bureau of Sugar Experimental
Stations (QBSES). As a result of those experiments, the QBSES succeeded in
calculating the correct fertiliser application rates for sugar cane. Keating et al.