Cotton Growing in the Logan District
During the period of the American Civil War (1861-65), production of cotton in the
plantations of the Southern United States was drastically reduced. Cotton prices soared from
4 pence halfpenny per pound in 1860 to 26 pence per pound in 1863, and as supplies of raw
cotton to the great Lancashire mills in England were cut off, mill owners and manufacturers
began looking for different markets from which to buy.
One of the new markets investigated was Australia, in particular the fledgling colony of
Queensland. Large sums of money were invested by interests in Manchester and Liverpool
and following the decision of the Australian Government to guarantee the price of cotton and
that of the Queensland Government to offer a bonus of 10 pounds sterling per bale, the
cultivation of cotton seemed set to become Queensland’s new growth industry.
Cotton comes to Logan
Following the establishment of the Logan Agricultural Reserve in 1862, settlement in the
Logan area began to increase rapidly. In 1863, 700 acres were allocated to the Queensland
Co-operative Cotton Growing and Manufacturing Company on the river at Loganholme.
Formed by Charles Bushell and Benjamin Babbage, this company was one of several which
sprang up in the Logan and Albert districts during this period, although large numbers of
small selectors also began growing the new crop.
One of the immediate difficulties encountered by the cotton growers was the lack of suitable
labour in Queensland, an almost universal problem which had wide-ranging economic
repercussions on the colony generally. Few people in the colony had any experience with
cotton and high wages made intensive farming uneconomical. The growers were obliged to
turn to the various immigration societies operating in Queensland at this time. The
Queensland Agent-General, Henry Jordan of Waterford (later the member for East Moreton
and the Minister for Lands) went to the United Kingdom to recruit skilled cotton-workers, and
five hundred free passages were offered to people from Manchester, Lancashire, Glasgow and
Coventry. As many of these people were unemployed and in great distress, the prospect of
work and land in the cotton co-operatives was very attractive. Following promotion of the
Queensland Co-operatives in The Guardian in 1862, 1000 families left England for
Queensland, arriving in 1863.
Their first experiences of life in the new colony proved to be something of a shock. Although
the immigrants claimed that “they were just as willing to grow cotton as to manufacture it”,
most of them were urban factory workers, with little practical experience of farming.
Conditions were harsh, and the land which they were granted in the Logan district was virgin
bush. As late as 1865, an anxious letter from the Loganholme Cotton Co. (by then bought out
by the Albion Cotton Co.) enquires of the government what proportion of the land was
required to be put under cotton, as they wished to grow “a crop of potatoes and maize so as to
keep us in the event of the cotton not proving sufficient”.
Local Studies Handout 7:
Cotton Growing in Logan # 6558388
11/06/2010
Before long many of these immigrants had given up, and were languishing in the South
Brisbane Depot “in a desponding and almost helpless condition”, little better off than they had
been in England. Eventually, some of them were offered jobs with the Victoria Cotton
Company in Pimpama (where the management stressed “repressive measures will be adopted
for the prevention of illicit trade in intoxicating drinks, and to prevent Public Houses being
erected on any portion of the property”). Early Loganholme settlers who continued to work
for the Cotton Co. included Thomas Hanlon (later of Yatala), J. Hamer and George Palk
(Slacks Creek).
The first South Pacific Island labour
The labour problems continued unalleviated and other interests preferred to find their labour
elsewhere. The possibility of introducing coloured labour to work in the cotton fields had
been broached as early as 1861, when William Hobbs wrote to the Queensland Government,
suggesting the importation of coolies from India.
This scheme foundered almost
immediately, but the use of indentured foreign labour was introduced two years later by
Captain Robert Towns, founder of Townsville, a director of the Bank of New South Wales
and one of Sydney’s foremost mercantile entrepreneurs.
Towns’ introduction of South Pacific Islanders, or kanakas, to work on his cotton plantation at
Logan was the first in Queensland, and it was to mark the beginning of the state’s infamous
“blackbirding” trade. Towns believed that coloured labour was the only solution to the labour
shortage, and that it was the only way to make the cotton industry viable. In October 1862, a
grant of 1280 acres on the Logan River was made to Towns for the purposes of growing
cotton and in May 1863 his schooner, the Don Juan was duly sent to the South Pacific to
“engage...fifty to 100 natives, all males”. The ship’s Captain, Greuber, and recruiter Ross
Lewin returned in August, with 67 Pacific Islanders. These men were immediately put to
work in the fields at “Townsvale”, Towns’ property on the Logan.
It is generally accepted that Towns’ first experiments with indentured labour did not
foreshadow the brutal excesses of the later “blackbirders”. His men were reasonably well
treated, and were paid regular wages (admittedly far below the rate of pay for Europeans). At
one stage in the late 1860’s there were as many as 250 Pacific Islanders working on the
Townsvale plantation, and despite attacks from humanitarian societies the idea of indentured
labour caught on quickly, spreading particularly quickly in Far North Queensland. After the
Townsvale property ceased growing cotton in the 1870’s, Towns’ original kanakas were set to
work growing sugar cane.
Local Studies Handout 7:
Cotton Growing in Logan # 6558388
11/06/2010
The Heyday of Cotton
The peak period of cotton production in Queensland was from 1868 to 1873. By this stage,
some of the early problems had been ameliorated, and the crop had established itself in the
area. In 1867, cotton from Robert Towns’ Townvale estate was to win the gold medal at the
Paris Exhibition, and a cotton mill (Fryer and Strachan’s) was established at Loganholme to
gin the cotton. (It was later to become a sugar mill).
In 1871, a correspondent in The Queenslander reported a yield of over 1000 lbs per acre, and
commented that despite a fall in prices “the cotton crop pays us better than any other that we
grow, excepting perhaps sugar.” Cotton prices, however, were already beginning to decline.
A report in Slater’s Queensland Almanac for the same year notes that despite an exceptional
season, cotton prices were lower than ever before.
The End of the Cotton Boom
Despite the enthusiasm of the government, and the interest of entrepreneurs such as Towns,
the cultivation of cotton in Queensland was to prove short-lived. The reasons for its demise
are varied. Shortage of labour and difficulties with pests continued, and the overly-damp
Queensland climate did not prove to be as suitable as it was originally hoped. According to a
government report of 1904, this problem was exacerbated by the cultivation of varieties
unsuitable to the conditions, the need for intensive labour and the seasonal nature of the crop
led to disenchantment with smaller producers.
By far the most important reasons however, were economic. Following the end of the
American Civil War the Southern cotton plantations began producing again, and although it
was some years before they recovered completely, the reappearance of American cotton on
world markets sounded the death knell for the Australian experiments. As supplies increased,
the price of cotton adjusted itself, and the Australian Government was forced to abolish the
guaranteed price in 1873. Cotton production in Queensland - including Logan - began to
decline, and despite efforts to keep the industry afloat, it was soon abandoned altogether.
Cotton continued to have its champions, and as late as 1902 James Bottomley, the socialist
and philanthropist was agitating (unsuccessfully) for a government-subsidised cotton industry
in Queensland. Today, the only reminder of Queensland’s cotton-growing era in Logan is
Cotton Co. Road in Loganholme, one of the borders of the original Cotton Co-operative.
Local Studies Handout 7:
Cotton Growing in Logan # 6558388
11/06/2010