Ageston Sugar Plantation was a sugar plantation established in 1866 on the Logan River at Alberton, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It was one of a number of early plantations which pioneered the region's sugar industry.
History John Stevens Ageston plantation was established on the south bank of the Logan River by John Stevens in 1866. John Stevens was born in Maine, USA, and came to Australia in 1835, involving himself in squatting and then cotton and sugar cultivation.The Brisbane Courier 21 February 1871, p. 4. Ageston was selected under the Regulations for the Cultivation of Sugar and Coffee of 1864 and 1866, and later brought under the Crown Lands Act of 1868. The original Ageston holding comprised a 320-acre block (Portion 2) of native forest and swamp. Fifty acres of cotton was grown, but following a poor yield Stevens turned to sugarcane, planting out 60 acres. A comfortable house set within gardens and orchards was built upon a hill that was the highest point on the estate. Like most of the sugar estates of the district, Ageston depended heavily on indentured South Sea Island labour. In November 1868 the plantation relied wholly on the labour of eight South Sea Islanders who managed two bullock teams and four horses, and this workforce was expected to increase when the cane had to be harvested. There was a horse-drawn mill to crush the cane and a wharf enabled steamers to regularly collect the sugar for market and bring in supplies.
Despite the soil largely being white, impoverished sand eroding from a sandstone substrate, the plantation proved highly productive, mostly because of the excellent drainage and presence of aquifers and springs. The plantation was also among the most favourably situated in the district, having a north easterly aspect, and being close enough to the mouth of the river to receive a mild coastal climate that mitigated against frost and extremes of heat but still being adequately sheltered.
In 1868 a correspondent for The Brisbane Courier visited the site and described the various improvements made:
A good split-rail fence had been erected round the cultivation. There are also six pig paddocks, of about two acres each, close paled (occupied by nearly sixty pigs), and the garden has been considerably enlarged. A new cotton shed had been built, which is to be turned into a tobacco shed eventually-a small patch of which is being tried, and a large kitchen next the house has also been finished. A stable for six horses is in course of erection. I noticed that the garden is kept in first rate order, and it is not too much to say that it is not only the largest, but the most orderly and comprehensive I have seen in tho district. I saw coffee, chicory, and earth nuts, near the common European garden produce of beans, peas, onions, and carrots, all looking well, whilst the large hedges of passion fruit were loaded, and the grapes, of several varieties, without any symptom of disease. There are also some young cocoa-nuts, yams, and other South Sea Island produce. Near a spring I saw the celebrated taro, of which the Islanders are so fond, and which is a water lily looking plant. The cassava does well, and there is a large patch near another patch of arrowroot, both of which Mr Stevens makes into meal for home use. Then there is the pawpaw from the Islands, which is thriving well, as well as lots of other choice and rare fruits and trees. I was told Mrs Stevens was the gardener, and l am sure she must take great pains, and every credit must be awarded her for her varied selection of flowers. On the left of the garden is a huge rabbit pen, where rabbits are bred and reared for the table at an almost incredible rate, the climate and food of young sorghum, maize, sow-thistle etc., being so favourable. Next (sic) these the fowls are lodged and kept as another indispensable for a farmer's wife. In walking round here I was shown a long hedge of Cape thorn, which seems to be well adapted for plantation fences, as what I saw was quite cattle-proof, and with attention this thorn could soon be trained to suit almost all fencing purposes. Mr. Stevens had just made a cockatoo fence at first, and then planted the Cape thorn seeds. It fruits almost like an orange, but it is worthless for eating.
Other observations at this time were:
John Stevens died in February 1871 and the estate went to auction. Prior to his death, and possibly in response to failing health, title to the lease was transferred to Joseph Baynes of Brisbane in May 1870. The advertisement for the sale notes that at this time the property comprised 641 acres, a lease having been taken out in 1869 on an adjoining 320-acre block to the east. Seventy acres were under cane and there were 200 acres of fenced paddocks, a horse mill with improvements by Smellie & Co., a stable (45 feet by 15 feet), a sugar store (50 feet by 15 feet), two huts for workers, and a weatherboard house of seven rooms with 2 acres of garden planted with coffee, orange, lemon, peach and other trees and flowers. There was also the spring, which supplied both the mill and the house. It was further noted that steamers and other craft from Brisbane passed on a daily basis and that the labour on the estate was carried out solely by experienced South Sea Islanders. Additional information on the plantation is provided by the Census of 1871, which identifies that there were 10 inhabited buildings and 30 people (27 men and 3 women).
William Couldery The plantation was sold to William Henry Couldery of Gympie in 1871. London born, William Henry immigrated to Australia as a young man due to a respiratory illness, and on regaining his health undertook pastoral pursuits in New South Wales and Queensland before arriving in Gympie in 1868. On the recently proclaimed goldfield he became renowned as an innovator, introducing new technology such as electric lighting and modern mining machinery. He owned or had shares in a number of goldmines and profited from the Gympie gold rush, becoming the first chairman of the Gympie Divisional Board and taking positions on many other local institutions. In 1872 he married Susanna Geddes of Caboulture and by the following year had started a family, with the birth of a daughter, Beatrice, at his Gympie residence, Warlingham Villa. The Couldreys had three more children, Reginald Hall (b. 1875), Victor Carlton (b. 1881) and Dorothy Rosamund (b. approx. 1896). William Couldery did not initially take up residence at Ageston, remaining instead in Gympie to oversee his interests there. Like many plantations, Ageston was run by a manager, the first being William Mune. To abide by the terms of the lease, William Mune lived on site as Couldery’s bailiffe. In 1879 a man named John Quinn also acted with Mune as bailiffe for the estate.
The original survey plans for the estate note that a deed was never issued for Stevens’ second block, and this may have been the catalyst for a resurvey and new lease application in 1871 which created a larger block of 492 acres (Portion 249). The bulk of this land was low-lying swamp and salt marsh partially inundated by the spring tides. The total size of the plantation was now 792 acres. In June 1871 two bullock teams were required to draw fencing for about 140 chains, and in April 1872 tenders were being called for grubbing, clearing and ploughing 30 acres of land. In 1873 the amount of land under cane extended to about ninety acres. The Bourbon cane was the variety principally grown as it suited the forest soil best, but other varieties, such as ribbon cane, were also present. Operations were also modernised, with the now outdated horse mill being replaced by one of the finest steam driven mills in the Moreton district. A wooden railway conveyed the cane to the mill, which incorporated the district’s the first vacuum pan. This innovation was significant as it represented a major step in improving the region’s sugar industry, which at the time was using a variety of primitive techniques and patented processes which often resulted in sugar of poor or inconsistent quality. The vacuum pan heated sugarcane juice in a partial vacuum, reducing its boiling point and so allowing much greater fuel efficiency than the open kettle system then in use. It was also safer for the operators. The vacuum pan was eventually adopted in sugar refining, escalating production and reducing the price of product.
The original Ageston selection (Portion 2) was converted to freehold in 1876 following the required 10 years of rent payments and property improvements. This year was also marked by Couldery winning first prize at the Exhibition of the Southern Queensland Agricultural Society for sugar produced by vacuum pan from ribbon and Bourbon cane, and over successive years continued to win prizes for his sugar. Ageston sugar was also shown at the New South Wales Intercolonial Exhibition of 1877. Often Ageston represented the only entry in the vacuum pan class. For a number of years Ageston remained the only plantation in the region to use the vacuum pan, all other manufacturers using open pans. The mill at Beenleigh did not get a vacuum pan until 1878.
A detailed description of the Ageston mill was given in 1873. It was noted that the site of the mill was on a gentle rise from the river, with the roads and tramway from the field converging on the upper side of the building. The shed covering the principal portion of the machinery was estimated at 120 feet long by 36 feet wide, with side wings for the engine, mill, and clarifiers on the one hand, and the necessary stores and offices on the other. Once delivered to the mill, the cane was crushed by rollers that were 86 inches long by 80 inches diameter. The waste, bagasse (also called megass), was used in a number of ways: fuel for the boilers, consumed by the plantation’s horses, or carried off by a truck on the wooden railway to a portion of low ground here it was partially composted before being returned to the fields as fertiliser. The juice from the cane was gravity fed into steam-jacketed clarifiers supplied by waste steam from the engine; then after being tempered and clarified, it was allowed to run into the battery which consisted of three large east iron pans and ‘double teach’ of copper. The concentrated liquor was raised in a copper dipper by windlass, and run into cisterns, from which it was passed into the well of the vacuum pan. This pan was a closed vessel, from which the air was extracted by means of a steam engine and air pump; it was 6 feet in diameter and made of cast iron lined with copper. It boiled the liquid at 140 degrees Fahrenheit. The stage and pan were supported by cast iron pillars, and for the security of the attendant the stage was surmounted by an iron railing. The air pump was driven by 12 horsepower engine. At the finish the contents were discharged by a valve into a receiver below and then into the centrifugals. The centrifugals were by Manlove and Alliott, of Birmingham, and were driven by the vacuum-pan engine by way of a gearing system. Once the manufacturing process was complete, the sugar was transferred to the store alongside the mill, where it was bagged and made ready for shipment. The engines, pan, and clarifiers were supplied with steam by two large boilers fitted with Galloway tubes (one to each plate) and the necessary draught obtained by a chimney seventy feet in height. There were also tramways for the supply of firewood to the furnaces, and for moving cane to the mill or sugar to the wharf. All of the machinery, except the centrifugals, were manufactured by J. Walker and Co., of the Union Foundry, Maryborough. The general management of the plant was by Mr Strachan, an engineer with experience working and erecting sugar machinery. The expertise and new technology injected into the mill greatly increase efficiency and quality of the product, with the sugar valued at £40 per ton.