Isis Central Sugar Mill, located four hours north of Brisbane, has been crushing cane for 129 years and is now asking the Queensland government for a loan capped at $9 million, according to the mill's board. The money is expected to cover expenses until September 2027, just before the end of the annual crush.
The 2026 season has been plagued by mechanical issues, including one of the mill's two boilers being offline for five weeks, reducing the crushing rate. The mill aims to crush just under 1.2 million tonnes this year but is 51,000 tonnes behind schedule two months out from the end of the season.
Chief executive Simon Brooks said work stoppages contributed to the financial strain, but most of the pressure came from global market conditions. "We're absolutely dependent on the sugar pricing for our revenue and, where you see a reduction in that sugar pricing, you have a corresponding reduction on your bottom line," he said.
Mr Brooks is calling on the federal government to match the state funding, noting a promising business case for a bioenergy precinct adjacent to the mill. "$18 million would go a long way to providing security," he said. "The business strategy is to diversify. We will still be a mill at the end of the day, but there's so much more we can do to make ourselves less dependent on pure sugar output, and that's doing more with assets that we have."
The mill employs 250 people during the on-season and supports more than 1,500 jobs across the supply chain. About 200 growers, from the Fraser Coast through to the North Burnett, supply cane to the mill. Throughput increased 50 per cent when it started accepting cane from the Maryborough district following the closure of that town's local mill in 2020.
Maryborough Canegrowers chair Roger Bambling said another mill closure would be devastating for the region. "It would leave a big hole," he said. "The whole secret is just to keep talking to each other, the mill and the growers. We're all in it together."