agriculture

Bananas are Australia's largest horticultural industry and highest selling supermarket product. The majority of the country's banana production is located in the north Queensland regions of Kennedy, Tully, Innisfail, Atherton Tableland, Mossman, Lakeland and Hopevale. Queensland produced more than 95% of Australia's bananas in 2014–2015. There are approximately 250 banana farming business entities in Queensland. Source: www.business.qld.gov.au/industries/farms-fishing-forestry...

In north Queensland, the Cassowary Coast region, including Tully and Innisfail is the major banana-growing region – not only for north Queensland but for all Australia. Other major growing areas are the Atherton Tablelands and Lakeland. The first banana plantations were started by the Chinese migrants working on the goldfields. In the Tully area, bananas were shipped to market via the Tully River and, in Innisfail, on the South Johnstone River. The trade in north Queensland bananas stopped during World War I when there were restrictions on local shipping and outbreaks of plant disease. The banana industry re-established in the area at the end of World War II in 1945. Stan MacKay and a number of other growers began farming in the Mission Beach area near Tully. Bananas were packed in 40kg wooden boxes and transported to market by rail up until the 1960s when road transport was introduced. Today bananas are packed in cardboard cartons and transported by both road and rail in refrigerated containers. The industry has grown substantially and the total farm area producing bananas in north Queensland in 2016 was 11,800 hectares. Source: abgc.org.au/our-industry/tropical-bananas/

collection.maas.museum/object/321716 - the PHM also have a print of this pic... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/163991150/16811180 - a photoshopped/composite version of this pic appeared in the Sydney Mail on 2nd March, 1904...in a pictorial feature article on farming in the Narromine district of Central Western NSW (see pic at bottom of 1st page of link)... The pic that appeared in the Sydney Mail, appears to be a composite, incorporating a second photo taken at a slightly earlier/late stage...as you can see, in the Sydney Mail pic, the chap on horseback has been photoshopped out...in the Sydney Mail pic he appears in the mid distance near the teams on the right...in addition, in the Sydney Mail pic the teams on the right don't quite match...they're in slightly different positions, etc... The Sydney Mail's caption: 'Ploughs at work at C. Rice's Narwonah. During the season Mr. Rice will use 12 of T. Robinson and Co.'s ploughs.' It's unclear when this pic was taken...one of the other pics in the Sydney Mail's feature article was evidently taken at the end of the 1903 harvest...my guess is these ploughing pics might have been taken on a later occasion... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/75311984 - the Dubbo Liberal, 8th July, 1911 - per this item, Charles Rice evidently sold Narwonah in 1911...he'd evidently been there some 25 years... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/144596730 - Wagga Daily Advertiser, 13th March, 1936...this brief obit for Charles Rice gives some bio details...I suspect Charles Rice might be the chap on horseback seen in the PHM pic... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/17341381 - SMH, 10th March, 1936...brief obit here also...