Records show that the dream of mechanical cane harvesting has
intrigued inventors in Australia since at least 1889, and in each season
since 1909 there seems to have been at least one harvesting machine
under trials or in use.
The success or failure of inventors has often been determined by
changing economic circumstances, and this is certainly true of the canegrowing
industry and the evolution of mechanical harvesting.
This applies to the Falkiner machine (Blyth, 1965) which was
perhaps the most successful of the early harvesters. It was not
commercially acceptable in Australia but was later modified into a
chopper model and obtained success in Florida in the early 1930's
before the depression reduced the price of hand labour and consigned
the machine to the scrap heap.
The main reasons why this machine was too early for its adoption
by the Australian industry were that suitable containers were not available
for transport of the chopped cane to the mill, and the six-inch