Sugar Mill, Cooks River

Sugar Works, Cooks River, Sydney

Close to where I live is the Cooks River and on the river is the oldest privately built industrial building in Australia.  This is the Sugar Works which was built between 1840 and 1842.  It was built from sandstone mined from the site.  The company imported raw sugar cane from the Philippines and then it was processed to make refined sugar and molasses for the colony.  It seems hard to believe that they would import raw sugar cane all the way from the Philippines.  I wonder how much checking of this produce was done by customs and whether there were snakes and insects imported as well.
This is a very handsome building that had many uses over the years.  There was a fire there in more recent history and then it was developed into residential apartments.  It's a great location, on the river and close to a train station.
I sketched this late sunday afternoon.  There were many people walking their dogs and kids on their skate boards going by, heading or coming from the river pathway.