August 2025, LRRSA Members Zoom meeting - Ross Sadler -Fiji Cane Trams

Ross Sadler will present on the following subject:

Fiji Cane Trains

Sugar cane was fist planted commercially in Fiji in 1873 and two years later the first mill was established – capable of producing three tonnes of sugar per day!  It was not long before the early mills started to lay tramways (2’6” gauge originally being chosen) and these were worked either manually or by bullocks.  Steam power had an inauspicious start in June 1882, when the fist engine (built by Falcon Works in Loughborough) could not haul five empty cane trucks up the steep grades of the tramway at Holmhurst Mill.  The next year, a more powerful engine arrived, quickly proved its worth and the tramway era in Fiji had begun in ernest.  Although both Holmhurst Mill and 2’6” gauge were quickly abandoned, tramways win Fiji were there to stay.