"Sugar daddy" desired in bid to save Mossman Mill history

Douglas Shire historian Pam Willis Burden is “looking for a sugar daddy’’ to help her deliver a tourism sweetener for Mossman, the Shire and Cape York.

Pam has launched a quest to have Mossman Mill turned into a sugar industry museum in a similar style to The Adventure of Sugar in Mauritius and has started a search for an investor and spoken to the selling agents of the Mill in her bid to save the main building and embark on a plan with a starting price tag of at least $12 million.

“The big vision is to turn the mill building into a museum of sugar, to preserve the history and to be able to show children where sugar comes from,’’ she said.

“Other buildings on the site, and there are some good buildings on there, can be used as a museum of Douglas Shire history, which we don’t have, a regional art gallery and a visitor centre.

“The place could be a gateway to Cape York and it would give people reason to stop in Mossman for longer than it takes to drink a coffee.’’

Pam said she was on the hunt for potential investors and looking at government grant money to spark the project.

“It is obviously a very long-term plan… it would need $12 million just for a start,’’ she said.

“I’m looking for a sugar daddy,’’ she added, with a laugh and an admission she already had written to Clive Palmer given he had property interests in the region.

“It is such a terrible shame for Mossman to lose the mill which started in 1897.

“If we can save it for now, and even to get a small part to start with, we can build from there.’’

Pam said she wants to see at least one of the cane bins preserved and, after missing out on the chance to buy one of the locomotives which were purchased by MSF Sugar and have been taken to South Johnstone, hoped in future that one could be returned to Mossman.

“Just one cane bin… and a loco to display would be great,’’ she said.