| Weight | 23 tons 17cwt |
| Boiler Pressure | 150psi |
| Cylinders | Outside – 9½in x 12in |
| Tractive Effort | 4,904 lbf |
| Valve Gear | Walschaerts |
This locomotive was built by Hudswell Clarke & Co in Leeds in 1915 by the Colonial Sugar Refining company (CSR) for the Victoria Mill at Ingham where it was known as Townsville.
CSR acquired large amounts of land in the north of Queensland after being enabled to do so by the passing of act by the Queensland Government in 1881. CSR invested £500,000 in establishing sugar plantations with the two major ones created were the Victoria Plantation and the Homebush Plantation.
Kidnapped or Blackbirded South Sea Islander labour was brought to Queensland on chartered boats to deforest the land, plant and cut the sugarcane, and build the mills. The 1884 recruiting voyage of Hopeful blackbirding labour vessel which kidnapped and murdered many Islanders was under contract to deliver labourers to the manager at the Victoria Plantation. An 1886 inquiry into this type of labour found that up to 60% of the Islanders transported to the Homebush Plantation had died within four years. The kidnapping and deaths of these workers resulted in 111 Islanders being removed from the CSR plantations by the Queensland government and returned to their homelands in 1885. CSR was compensated £4,424 by the government for the loss of these labourers. CSR also experimented with cheap Chinese, Javanese, Singhalese and Japanese coolie labour on their plantations.
By the 1890s, Knox decided to abandon the plantation system in Queensland and return to the central mill method used in its New South Wales operations. CSR subdivided the Victoria and Homebush estates into small farms which it sold or leased to white farmers who would sell their cane to CSR to be processed at its nearby mills.
In 1891 the Queensland government imposed a ban on recruiting indentured South Sea Island workers, but the ban was promptly postponed for 10 years when the sugar industry was badly affected by the global economic depression.
In 1901 the federal government passed the Pacific Island Labourers Act, which called for the deportation of most South Sea Islanders.
The mill at Victoria has been modernised and expanded several times over the years. By the mid 1950s following major expansion of the mill and its growing area it had become one of the largest in Australia and Ingham district was anticipating its first million ton cane crop.
Interestingly Victoria Mill, an early adopter of chopped cane bins and diesel power, was also one of the last to retire its steam locomotives.
The locomotive was donated by CSR for preservation in 1977 and is now displayed within the Australian Sugar Heritage Centre at Mourilyan.
1099’s sister locomotive, 1098 is preserved at the Alexandra Timber Tramway and Museum where it is a static exhibit powered by compressed air.
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