Prior to its expansion to Fiji, the CSR was operating Sugar Refineries in Melbourne and Auckland.
Sugar production had started in Fiji with the collapse of the cotton price in early 1860s.
CSR's first Mill in Fiji started crushing sugar cane in Nausori in 1882.
The Chalmers brothers built the Penang Mill in 1880 and sold it to Melbourne Trust Company in 1896.
The CSR did not buy the mill when it came up for sale in 1905 because it wanted other millers in the colony, so that they could approach the Government jointly over tax concessions.
The Nausori Mill was shut down in 1959 because of low sugar content in the cane supplied to it.
When sugar mills were being set up in Fiji in the 1870s and 1880s it was hoped that Fijians would be the major supplier of cane.
In 1880, settlers in Rewa had agreed to grow cane for the CSR for 10 shillings a ton.