Cane fields to be set ablaze in Cairns

A practice of burning off cane fields before harvest is being demonstrated at the Cairns Festival. Source: AAP

FARMER Jeff Pezzutti remembers watching raging fires rip through cane fields in far north Queensland as a child.

"Those flames could jump anywhere up to 15 metres or more," the 76-year-old told AAP.

"You'd see the rats and snakes coming out of the fields trying to get away.

"It was spectacular and generated a lot of heat."

As the practice is rarely used these days, Mr Pezzutti is looking forward to watching the spectacle on Saturday evening when a cane field at Yorkeys Knob, north of Cairns, is burned as part of the Cairns Festival.

Burning cane fields was a common sight from the 1930s when Mr Pezzutti's father worked as a cane cutter in Innisfail, south of Cairns.

"My father cut cane in the old days when you had to cut cane by hand and load it by shoulder," he said.

"It was a very difficult job, back-breaking work."

The cane fields were set alight to burn off the plant's exterior, making it easier for farmers to cut the cane.

With many cane cutters off fighting in the war, burning the fields also meant harvesting required fewer men.

Cutting green cane (plants that hadn't been burned) was also becoming less popular because cane cutters were dying from disease they caught by coming into contact with rat urine in the cane fields.

Mr Pezzutti says burning the cane was a tricky task and only those who were specially trained light the fires.

"Wind is a major factor... people have died during cane fires," he said.

In the 1980s to 1990s the practice was no longer necessary with the introduction of machinery that could slice through the green plants.

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