Dawn at the Cairns Bulk Sugar Terminal with cargo ship ready for loading

If you’re like me and have always wondered about what happens at those big green sheds on the Cairns waterfront, then here are some pics that will help answer that question.  Last week I was at the Bulk Sugar Terminal to capture some industrial photography of the ship loading process for the site owners STL.

Queensland has one of the world’s largest bulk raw sugar storage and handling systems, with seven terminals spread along the coast.  These bulk sugar terminals can store more than two million tonnes of raw sugar, allowing year round deliveries to refineries in Australia and overseas.  These installation enable more than 25,000 tonnes of raw sugar to be loaded in less than a day.

Bulk sugar is held in the massive storage sheds and when required for shipment, is fed through hoppers in the terminal shed floor to underground conveyor systems. These conveyors transport the sugar to the wharf where it is loaded into the ship’s hold.

Dawn rays at the bulk sugar terminal in Cairns

Raw sugar from hoppers loading raw sugar onto conveyors

Conveyor belt transporting raw sugar along the wharf

Machinery loading raw sugar from the storage shed into underground hoppers

Worker watching the sugar loading process on gantry

Sugar being loaded into ship’s hold

Worker looking out over the sugar terminal site at twilight

A worker monitors sugar being loaded into ship’s hold

Worker dwarfed by cargo ship at terminal wharf

Conveyor belt transporting sugar along the wharf

Cargo ship docked at the sugar terminal wharf

Loading gantry over ship’s hold

Sugar storage sheds at the Cairns site

Worker and new Sugar Terminal Ltd branding