01 August 2022
The Mackay region is home to a lot of sugar; sugar cane and sugar mills. We have driven past the mills so many times, watching them start up for crushing, and then stop with the rain. The Sarina Mill offered a mini-mill for tours, so we stopped for a visit.
Workplace Health and Safety means you cannot tour the real mill anymore, but the mini-mill gives a decent idea of the process. The tour is a bit of fun and the kids certainly enjoyed it. Best of all (in their opinion) you got to sample the end product in a few forms.
It turns out though that the kids only really like sugar in its final form. They weren’t a fan anything between raw cane (they gave it a chew) and molasses. Some of the intermediate steps were better than others but nothing was enjoyed. Fortunately for them the tour ends with a tasting and the star of the show was fairy floss. Perfectly timed for a sugar high on the drive home.
