RUMOURS have been spreading throughout the Home Hill community of alleged plans by the Burdekin Shire Council to move the Sweet Days Hot Nights Festival—including the Cane Cutting Championships, which have been held in the former Home Hill Showgrounds in especially prepared cane fields for several years— to a new site off the Bruce Highway in Plantation Creek on the south side of the Ayr township.
We were told by at least four people that the Council had purchased the site and was preparing it for a future move.
However, we have not mentioned the “story” before this, because we had serious doubts that such a move would be possible, as we had been informed some time ago that cane growing had ceased on the subject parcel of land in the past because the groundwater level was so high that it had been impossible to put a plough into it without finding water.
The fact that such a move was not happening was confirmed by Mayor Lyn McLaughlin at the recent Home Hill Chamber of Commerce annual meeting when, in answer to a question, she advised that the festival would return to the Home Hill Showgrounds in total next year.
That is great news for Home Hill and for the many visitors who look forward to seeing the unique first cane fire in all its glory.
