A Brief History - Carl Heinrich Heck

FOUNDING HISTORY

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Established in 1878 and situated in Woongoolba is the Rock Point Sugar Mill. The mill is the only privately owned sugar mill in Australia. It was the enterprise of German immigrants led by Carl Heinrich Heck.

Carl Heinrich Heck established a sugar growing and milling enterprise over 27 years (1879 - 1906) in the pioneering and settling spirit of the day. With German Lutheran heritage, Carl and his wife Joanna set about creating a new life in Australia.

A Brief History - Wilhelm Heinrich Heck

It is notable that the district of Beenleigh has been shaped by the effort and labours of a generation of German settlers.

history_img_WHHWilhelm Heinrich Heck took over the family enterprise and set upon a path of expanding and increasing the milling capacity of the operation. Overcoming the logistical challenges of the day, Wilhelm oversaw the purchase and relocation of the central mill at Benowa to Rocky Point. This increased the groups crushing capacity from 800 tons to 40,000 tons annually.

After the passing of his parents (Joanna 1911, Carl 1915) and with the advent of the first world war German immigrants were looked on with at least suspicion and at worst deep contempt, Wilhelm Heinrich would become William Harry and the district founded as Steiglitz would be renamed Woongoolba.

After the war (between 1919 and 1947) the many smaller mills in the district closed one by one. Rocky Point Sugar Mill grew to absorb the increased volume of cane yielded from the district as the mills closed.