plantations

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/

The original ZZ Top. It's incredible when you think they were still running around in good fettle nearly sixty years after the Civil War.

Gamble Plantation Historic State Park, also known as the Gamble Mansion is a Florida State Park located in Ellenton, Florida on the Manatee River and US 301. It consists of the antebellum mansion developed by its first owner, Major Robert Gamble; a 40,000-gallon cistern to provide the household with fresh water; and 16 acres (65,000 m2) of the sugar plantation. At its peak, the plantation occupied 3500 acres in south Florida, and Gamble likely held more than 600 slaves to work the property and process the sugar cane. The park also includes the restored wood-frame, two-story, Victorian-style Patten House, built in 1872 for owner George Patten. The mansion, the only surviving antebellum plantation house in South Florida, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Robert Gamble House on August 12, 1970. Its columns and two-foot-thick walls are constructed of tabby, a regional material developed as a substitute for brick. In 1925 the mansion and grounds were bought by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and donated to the state a memorial to Judah P. Benjamin, who served in three Cabinet positions under Confederate President Jefferson Davis during the American Civil War. He stayed at the plantation in May 1865 before escaping Federal forces, and sailing to England, where he had a second career. In 1937 the UDC installed a memorial plaque to Benjamin at the mansion. In 2002 the state acquired the property which holds the ruins of the plantation's sugar mill, one of the South's largest, and added it to the historic park complex. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamble_Plantation_Historic_State_Park