Sugar mills in Fiji

Sugar cane grew wild in Fiji and was used as thatch by the Fijians for their houses (bures).

The first attempt to make sugar in Fiji was on Wakaya Island in 1862 but this was a financial failure.

The first cane sugar mill in Fiji was built in 1872 by Brewster and Joske near to the present site of the Government Buildings in the capital city of Suva.

Most of these mills crushed for only a few years and only a few survived the crash in sugar price of 1884.

In 1880, John Bates Thurston went to Australia seeking investment for Fiji and persuaded the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR) to extend its operations to Fiji.