Hap Wah Plantation
Date Published
: Agricultural (sugar)
: Far North (Qld)
: Cairns
: 1878
The Hap Wah (合華) plantation, financed by local and Hong Kong Chinese, employed 60 Chinese workers and was the first in the Cairns district to produce both cotton and sugar. A commemorative plaque to the plantation and its founder Andrew Leon can be found in the Earlville Shopping Centre, south of Cairns—its original site.
Cairns City Chinese heritage trail
The Hap Wah plantation (1878-1886) was the spark that ignited the Cairns region’s sugar industry. In 1882 the Hap Wah Company’s Pioneer Mill crushed and manufactured the first cane sugar, and exported 110 tons valued at £3060. This Chinese venture, Australia’s most unique sugar producer, was financed by Hong Kong and local investors. Andrew Leon was the selector, manager and spokesman for the 1,250 acre plantation which today is covered by the suburbs of Earlville and Woree.
CADCAI
Planting sugar-cane Queensland, Hop [Hap] Wah, Chinese canegrowers, 1878
See also Andrew Leon
