[1] Although timber was a vital part of the early economy of the Sunshine Coast region, sugar eventually became the primary agricultural activity of the Maroochy Shire.

Although the first half of the 1880s was a golden era for those Queensland sugar producers who operated by the plantation system, under which large areas of sugar cane were worked by South Sea Islander labourers, Queensland Premier Samuel Griffith sought to promote closer settlement via small-scale cane farming by white settlers.

Fifteen year loans would be made to incorporated companies where there was enough suitable land, already farmed by small canegrowers, to supply a mill.

The company's freehold land (the mill site) would also be mortgaged to the government, and all building contracts would have to be approved by the Department of Public Works.

However, after the early 1890s Depression, and the 1893 floods, many farmers were considering quitting the area, and sugar offered an alternative source of income to mixed food crops.

A committee was formed and applied to have land in the area assessed by the government for its viability, and similar applications were made by farmers at Dulong and Yandina.

McCulloch, from the Department of Agriculture, assessed the potential sugar-growing land in the district, and concluded that there was sufficient acreage to support a mill.

[1] The town of Nambour had begun with the building of a hotel by Mathew Carroll in the 1880s, and had developed in anticipation of the arrival of the North Coast Railway.

In 1906, to forestall foreclosure, money was borrowed from the London Bank of Australia to pay off the government, with the growers' land once more used as security.

[1] The London Bank was paid off by 1914, due to the sale of the mill's western tramline to the Maroochy Shire Council after cold weather had convinced cane farmers to the west of Nambour to convert to dairy farming.

Cusack was contracted to build two identical structures, and although the two Mill Street cottages were originally similar in size and plan, with four room cores and L-shaped verandahs, they may have been built as late as 1917.

[1] In 1908 Walter Lanham constructed £44 worth of alterations and additions to the manager's cottage, and this may refer to the kitchen wing to the rear of the Bury Street house.

[1] The form of the early rectangular-plan house and projecting rectangular kitchen wing is evident in the external walls and the verandahs to the west, south and east and sunroom to the north.

The house is timber-framed, clad with tongue and groove boards to the south and fibrous cement sheeting to the enclosed east and west verandahs.

The kitchen wing, projecting to the north, is clad with weatherboards and has a later small skillion extension and back stairs to the east.

The early house is sheltered by hipped roofs clad with corrugated metal sheeting and stands on a combination of concrete and steel post stumps infilled with timber palings.

The south wall onto the front verandah is of post and rail construction with a single-skin of vertical tongue and groove timber boards.

Three concrete steps cut into the grassed footpath to Bury Street lead to a decorative metal entrance gate that is framed by two tall shaped timber posts.

[1] The planning and exterior and interior fabric show the extent of the early cottage and reflect changes made over time, some more recently.

The cottage has a partly open front verandah to Mill Street and a hipped roof kitchen wing extension to the rear southeast corner.

[1] The plan works off a central corridor from the front entrance to the living room which incorporates the enclosed rear verandah.

The main part of the cottage is sheltered by a pyramid roof truncated on the west side and clad with corrugated metal sheeting.

The front entrance door opens from the verandah into a central living area which is divided by a partition lined with vertical timber boards.

[1] The plan works off the central living area which flows through to the southern extensions which accommodate dining, kitchen, laundry and bathroom.

The ceilings of the bedrooms and living room are lined with narrow timber boards and have timber-framed sash windows with obscure patterned glazing.

A timber and chainwire fence runs to each side of a concrete path and there are metal gates to the north and south entrances.

[1] A vehicle easement runs to the west of the manager's house and turns east terminating at the rear of the cottage at 17 Mill Street.

[1] A metal pole with signals and two signs CANE TRAIN MOVING is bolted to the footpath at the northeast end of 17 Mill Street.

[1] The former Moreton Central Sugar Mill Worker's Housing was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 16 May 2008 having satisfied the following criteria.

The mill staff housing is rare surviving evidence of the sugar industry in the region illustrating a way of life that was once common but has now vanished.