"Mill Tribe"Print Page

The 5.5 metre tall, 44 tonne steel sculpture pays tribute to the region’s history.  

The family-themed sculpture depicts the town’s heritage and it symbolises human figures – a father, mother, and child – to represent how the community is tied together by its customs and history. The sculpture’s figures are made from the old crushing rollers salvaged from the steel furnaces of Bundaberg Sugar when the Nambour Mill closed in 2004.

The installation was funded through Council’s Division 10 Capital Works Program, council’s Community Grants program and an incredibly generous donation from supportive community members Rod and Jan Forrester.

Gordon Oakes has led a rich life that's taken him to every corner of the globe and he says he owes it all to Nambour's old Moreton Central Sugar Mill. The mill is long gone but standing as a stark reminder of its contribution to the Sunshine Coast is a new 5.5m-tall monument, called the "Mill Tribe", made from 44 tonnes of the original cogs, shafts and rollers. Sugar cane was once the heart and soul of the Coast's economic development but the industry has almost completely petered out.

Thanks to local artist Michael Foley and councillor Greg Rogerson, its memory will live on for decades to come.

Gordon and other former cane workers gathered for yesterday's plaque unveiling in what was a stirring and nostalgic moment for the whole of Nambour. He said it was good to catch up with past mates and remember the good old days. "We're just reminiscing on how the trucks used to come out of here," he said with a smirk. "They used to roll down the hill here to the marshalling yard, they were supposed to mark clip points, but they never got set."

Gordon's forbears moved to Nambour in 1878 and began growing sugar cane when the mill opened in 1897. He went to work as soon as he was able and had no regrets. "It didn't hurt us, let's put it that way," he said. "I left school when I was 14 to work in the mill and, in the late '80s, it was a jolly good industry. I've just returned home from travelling through Canada, America and South America."

Another person at yesterday's ceremony was the vice-president of The Descendants of the Australian South Sea Islanders Inc, Sonny Buquar, who was representing the hundreds of Islanders who were brought by boat to work in the mill. Sonny was born in Nambour in 1934 and said he couldn't have lived a fuller life without the mill. "I've lived here almost all my life and as far as I'm concerned, it's heaven on Earth," he said. "I never had a bad friend, I never got into any trouble and it's just a wonderful place. "But I was really pleased when the harvesters came in."
Sunshine Coast Daily, 18 December 2015. 

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