Welcome to Walrus.
The area of land between the Albert and Logan Rivers was planted with cane in 1865 by the partnership of Francis Gooding and John Davy. The brothers-in-law had arrived in Brisbane from Devon, England, in 1862 and named their new plantation "Beenleigh" after their home in England. By 1866 their plantation was productive and in 1868, the Inspector of Distilleries reported that the Logan area had 802 acres (325 ha) under cultivation and a still was in the course of erection at "Malungmovel", George Board's plantation. The production of rum was encouraged by the Queensland Government as it brought in revenue from taxes and was a popular commodity, being easier to keep and transport than beer or wines in an era when transport was slow.
A mobile distillery also served the numerous plantations along the rivers. This was the steam operated "Walrus", a boat which was built at Cleveland in 1864 as a sailing vessel, then sold in 1869 to James Stewart who converted it to steam and installed a still. A license to operate as a floating distillery was reluctantly granted on 14 April 1869 by the Inspector of Distilleries, although he deemed the boat unsuitable for the purpose, as there was then no other licensed distillery in the area. The boat then operated as the Pioneer Floating Sugar Mill. Its licence was not renewed in 1872 as it did not fulfil the requirement to carry cane-crushing equipment and acted solely as a distillery, producing rum from molasses. This is the thick syrup remaining after cane juice has been crystallised by boiling to produce sugar. Rum is produced from this by-product by adding water and yeast and fermenting the mixture. This is then boiled and the alcohol vapour separated out by distillation, the condensate being collected, perhaps charcoal filtered, and stored in casks to mature.
By 1869 Davy and Gooding had 55 acres (22 ha) under cane and were constructing a sugar mill, which was in operation by the following year. The boom in sugar in the region in the 1870s led to the rapid development of the nearby township that took its name from the Beenleigh plantation. By 1876 this was described by Bailliere's Gazetteer as a provincial centre serving an area with nine sugar mills within six kilometres of the township.