[1] The Mackay Sugar Research Institute was constructed in 1953 by builder Don Johnstone to a design by prominent architect Karl Langer.

Mackay architect Harold Brown prepared plans for the second stage of the building in 1963 based on Langer's original design.

[1] Following the exploration and mapping of pastoral runs in the Mackay district in the early 1860s, the fertile land was soon reduced to smaller selections.

Originally built to explore the suitability of diverse forms of agriculture, the "Lagoons" site became the centre for research into cane varieties and more efficient methods of production.

Renamed the Mackay Sugar Experiment Station and including laboratories and residences, it was transferred to the Te Kowai mill site in 1935.

It co-ordinated the research carried out in the three sugar-growing regions of Mackay, Cairns and Bundaberg comparing cane varieties, sampling soils and fostering better farming and irrigation methods.

Millers, represented by the Australian Sugar Producers' Association, became increasingly dissatisfied with their lack of control over the direction and activities of the Bureau.

Other absentee mill owners were reputedly uncertain about disclosing trade secrets that such an alliance might bring but the formation of the group was in the face of "stark ruin, with overseas prices on which cheap labour countries could not exist.

[1] In 1949, the Australian sugar industry comprised mainly small cane farms located along the continent's tropical and sub-tropical Queensland and New South Wales coastline.

The 5.5 million tonne cane crop, almost entirely grown in Queensland, was crushed by 34 raw sugar mills, most of which were owned co-operatively by growers.

To achieve this goal, the industry's leaders determined they would have to expand cane production and the factories would have to improve sugar recovery and increase processing rates.

He worked throughout Australia and was the initiator of many influential urban design ideas such as the site for the Sydney Opera House and the pedestrianisation of Queen Street.

The design provided a single storey utility building, an annexe to the main structure, containing workshops, stores and a machinery room.

Later, a second wing could be added to the main building providing additional workshops and laboratory space to cater for expansion of the research institute.

The stylistic indicators of the building including its hipped roof, lack of sunhoods due to wide eaves and its corner casement windows suggest a date of mid to late 1930.

The institute's focus from its establishment was to find solutions to industry problems via a program of short-term research and strategic design and construction projects.

[1] The landscaping of the institute was part of Langer's design, which included the planting of royal palms (Roystonea regia) along the roadside perimeter.

[1] The institute's annual general meetings and technical conferences were always well attended providing opportunities for mill personnel to discuss any issues with factories and to liaise with colleagues.

[1] As reported by the Environmental Protection Agency's Sustainable Industries Unit in October 2004, the institute developed more efficient condensers for sugar mills.

[3] In 2021, the institute began redevelopment to become a Catholic secondary school, Catherine McAuley College Mackay, which opened operations on 22 February 2022.

[1] The Sugar Research Institute complex is made up of the Main Building, attached Garages, Directors Residence, and Workshop.

A corrugated, galvanised iron shed/garage is located at the south east extremity of the site, adjacent to the rear vehicle entrance.

[1] The dominant landscape feature is the double row of royal palms (Roystonea regia) that line the roadside perimeter of the site.

[1] The entrance hall is an impressive double volume with the marble finish of the portico carried through to the stair treads, skirtings and the internal masonry faces of the window wall.

[1] Offices opening off the corridor are cross ventilated with vertical, adjustable, obscure glass louvers in timber frames above door head height.

[1] Internally the Directors residence has generous living and dining areas located to the east of the entrance and the bedroom wing to the west.

The hipped roof of corrugated asbestos cement tiles and the face-brick external walls however remain largely intact although there have been door and window insertions.

[1] The office/laboratory area has vinyl tile floors; exterior walls are plastered and painted while all internal subdivision of spaces is made up of light aluminium framed partitioning system with timber ply panels and clear glazing above door head height.

The Mackay Sugar Research Institute in particular the Main Building, the central part of the workshops, Director's Residence and the circular driveway is significant as a good example of the work of the important and influential architect Karl Langer.

[1] The institute building is significant as an example of Karl Langer's work where the decorative restraint evident in the simplicity of the facade detailing and compositional qualities creates particular visual merit.