Sugar first appears as a Queensland export in 1870, the quantity being, however, only 26 cwt. By 1879 the quantity had reached 206,269 cwt., the quarter-century closing in 1884 with 368,626 cwt., valued at £454,759. But these figures do not represent the quantity of sugar manufactured, the total in 1884 being given at 33,361 tons, the export being 18,431 tons. In 1885 the export, as compared with the previous year, increased by 58½ per cent. in value. In 1888 the value declined to £384,375, or by more than one-half as compared with 1886. Thence for many years there was a fluctuating export, a drop to £681,038 in 1897 being followed by a jump to £1,329,876 in 1898. Two years later there was a heavy fall to £669,389 worth; then two years' progression followed by a fall to £646,875 in 1903. In 1904, owing to the Commonwealth bounty and good seasons, there was a recovery to £1,257,815, followed by substantial progression each following year, till 1907, when the record export of £1,779,624 was made. In 1908, owing to abnormal frosts, there was a decline to £1,482,320.
The quantity of sugar made of course showed corresponding fluctuations. In 1896 the 100,000-ton limit of manufacture was for the first time passed. It was followed by a slight drop in the following year, but in 1898 the record to that date in manufacture, as well as in export, was made, the product of the mills reaching the high figure of 163,734 tons. After that year there was a fluctuating decline in manufacture to the minimum of 76,626 tons in 1902, the great drought year; but there was an improvement in 1903, and in 1905 152,722 tons were manufactured, the two following years being very close together with a mean production of 186,342 tons. In 1908 the sugar manufactured was 151,098 tons, a decrease, through frost, of 37,209 tons for the year. In glancing through the figures not only will the effects of good and bad seasons be recognised, but also of the suspension of kanaka labour importation in 1888, its revival in 1890, and the payment of the Commonwealth bounty during the last five years.
When in 1866 railway construction suddenly ceased, both on the Southern and Central (then called the Northern) lines, there was general distress, mitigated shortly afterwards by the discovery of gold at the Crocodile Field, near Rockhampton; and in 1867 by the opening up of the Gympie Goldfield. The first important discovery of gold, however, had been on the Peak Downs in 1862, after which the production of that metal advanced from 2,783 oz. in 1863 to 15,660 oz. in 1864, slightly in excess of which level it remained for the next two years. The gold raised then jumped to 35,581 oz. in 1867, and to 111,589 oz. in 1868. During the next two years the production dropped by about 19,000 oz., but it recovered to 115,986 oz. in 1871. In 1874 it made another big jump to 254,959 oz., owing to the discoveries at the Palmer, Charters Towers, and elsewhere in the North. This volume of production was rather more than maintained during the next two years, after which there was a fluctuating annual diminution until 1887, when there was a recovery to 348,890 oz. For seven years of the first quarter-century the value of gold won exceeded a million sterling per annum, high-water mark being touched in 1875--a year of heavy rainfall and abundant water--with a gold yield of £1,196,583.