Anyone for coffee?

After driving past kilometres of sugar cane fields, travellers along the Bruce Highway might be amazed as they pass the Whitsunday Gold Coffee plantation in Proserpine, North Queensland.

While coffee growing in the area is unusual now, coffee plantations have a surprisingly long history here, dating back to the early 1900s. The variety grown now is same as was grown over 100 years ago - 'dwarf catui'; one of the Arabica types of coffee.

So why was coffee grown in this region all those years ago?

One line of thought is that the early settlers brought coffee into the region, originally because of isolation. Another possibility is because of the high Italian population in North Queensland.

The Mackay “Daily Mercury” (January 7 1914) noted that several settlers in the Proserpine district were “contemplating the growing of coffee which (authorities) considered would do particularly well”. Then, in the following year, “Townsville Bulletin” (December 20 1913) reported on “a very instructive lantern slide lecture” held the Cannon Valley Hall in which farmers were warned of “the inadvisability of having all one’s eggs in one market. Cocoanut growing was dealt with, also coffee and vanilla, and the profits that (could) be made…”

However, as far back as 1912, there were newspaper reports signifying that coffee was already being grown in the district. The “North Queensland Register” (August 12 1912) published the results of exhibits at the annual show. R Guskie (Gustkie) won first prize for ‘Coffee in Berry’ and for ‘Manufactured Coffee’ while A E J Emmerson won first prize for ‘Tobacco Cured in Leaf’. (Robert Gustkie grew coffee on Gustkie’s Hill which was located where Taylorwood is now situated.)

Prior to the 1920s and into the 1930s, C H (Harold) Waye farmed coffee on his 258 acres of land in the Caprioglio Road area, Conway. By 1920, he had secured a First Order of Merit for his coffee at the Brisbane Show.

The Brisbane “Courier Mail” story, “Queensland Coffee Growing” (August 2 1926), reported that Mr Waye had “sent to Townsville for inclusion in the tropical exhibit at the Brisbane Show some pure coffee grown and prepared for market by himself at Proserpine. The coffee is on show in Brisbane, Sydney, London, and Ottawa, and he has inquiries for large quantities from Ottawa, Sydney and from one of the largest firms in this State. The grower suggested that a ‘Queensland Coffee’ put on the world's market as boldly as is ‘Queensland Jam’ should be a success. But he does not find the Government very encouraging.”

By 1933, the quality of the coffee produced by Waye was acknowledged. The “Bowen Independent” (October 9 1933) published a letter written by Frank W Bullock, Secretary for Agriculture and Stock, regarding trials of coffee growing. It stated, “We are aware of the work that has been done with coffee by Mr Charles H Waye of Proserpine … The quality of the coffee produced by Mr Waye … is known to … my department.”

The letter recognised that the “principal difficulty associated with coffee production in Queensland is competition of imported coffee grown under cheap black labour conditions which mostly consists of an adulterated concoction of three parts chickory and one part coffee.” The letter concluded that it would be necessary to educate consumers on the merits of pure coffee and for the government to grant some protection but that such efforts were to no avail.

Perhaps it was the government’s lack of support that resulted in the demise of the industry in the Whitsundays.

Story courtesy Proserpine Historical Museum and photo sourced from “Proserpine Guardian” 18/04/2001

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Harold Waye surveying his crop at Conway

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