A Cane Fire’s Beauty Captured On Camera

Despite growing up in the Burdekin, Marni Hine admits she knew little about the sugar cane industry.

“Unless you’re in a family or in that industry, then it’s very mysterious,” she said.

“After talking to a lot of farmers and finding out more about the inner workings of the industry, I found it to be very interesting.”

Years later, Ms Hine immersed herself in the industry that once bewildered her, gathering stories and photographs that would ultimately become her ‘Project Raw’ exhibition and ‘Ignited’ publication, due for a reprint next month.

Ms Hine left the Burdekin to attend boarding school before relocating overseas where she worked as a fashion photographer in New York.

Upon returning home, she became a haul out driver, initially planning on working in the sugar cane industry for one year but returning season after season for 12.

“I knew that the sugar industry was the biggest industry here and I didn’t know about it so part of it was out of curiosity,” she said.

“It’s got its own beauty.”

Ms Hine found herself combining her passion for photography with her newfound fascination with the industry, taking photos with her phone while out in the paddocks.

Always with projects in mind, she received the Burdekin Shire Council’s Regional Arts Development Fund in 2022, which motivated her to take her camera into the field and capture the moments and the stories of cane growers and contractors.

Thanks to the grant, Ms Hine displayed these photos in an exhibition called Project Raw which was hosted at the Burdekin Theatre in May 2023 in collaboration with Sweet Days, Hot Nights Festival.

Ms Hine also released a book capturing the heated and beautiful moments of cane fires titled ‘Ignited’, an interim project while she works on her major book project, ‘Raw’.

“The burns are very interesting to people who come through here and it’s hard to see them up close,” she said.

“I’ve been able to get in on fire tractors because it’s part of a contractor’s job to be at some burns.

“That way, you get to go up the breaks and you see the dynamic of it, and you learn how the burns are orchestrated by the farmers.

“Thankfully I had people who were very patient with me putting a camera in front of their faces.”

100 copies of ‘Ignited’ were printed in late 2023 and rapidly sold out.

Ms Hine will have more copies available to purchase in February from Home Hill News and Coffee and Little Leaves Nursery, Brandon.

Visit Project Raw on Facebook for more information.

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Photographer and Author Marni Hine and Burdekin Shire Council Mayor Lyn McLaughlin hold a copy of Ms Hines’ ‘Ignited’. Photo credit: Sam Gillespie

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