The history of cane pest and disease control boards in Queensland

Abstract

PESTS AND DISEASES have been major factors in canegrowing in Australia from at least the 1870s, when both canegrubs and a disease called ‘rust’ began to attack cane. Control measures against canegrubs were urgently required by the early 1890s, and one far-sighted Mackay man began to campaign for the only possible method available at that time.