Cane country

Headed back south today, hour after hour down the Bruce Highway to Rockhampton, walls of sugar cane sometimes right up to the edge of the road, hemming us in. We stopped to watch some of it being cut. Australia - which pioneered the development of the mechanised cane harvester - ranks in the top five of world sugar exporters, and 90 per cent of it is grown in Queensland (the rest in New South Wales). In 2009-10, the national production of cane for crushing reached 31,235 million tonnes, and in 2010-11, sugar exports were worth $2,366 billion.