Canecutters Memorial

Canecutters Memorial is a heritage-listed memorial at Fitzgerald Esplanade, Innisfail, Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Renato Beretta and built in 1959. It is also known as Pioneers of the Sugar Industry Monument. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 29 April 2003.HistoryThe Canecutter's Memorial was erected in 1959 by the Italian community of the Innisfail district to commemorate the centenary of the state of Queensland. The life-size statue of a canecutter was chosen, reflecting the importance of the sugarcane industry in the development of the district's economy.The town of Innisfail (called Geraldton until 1911) was founded in 1880 by Thomas Henry Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald arrived on the banks of the Johnstone River with 35 South Sea Islanders and ten Irish workers to grow sugarcane on a 10,000 hectare land grant, funded by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Brisbane and All Hallows' Sisters of Mercy. Others arrived soon after, and a community was established with an economy based firmly on the production of sugar. In 1882 a sugar mill was built at Mourilyan in 1882, followed by the establishment of the South Johnstone mill in 1915.