Pacific Islander labourers loading sugar cane onto a punt, c1896

This is a posed black-and-white photograph showing about ten Pacific Islander labourers involved in loading harvested sugar cane onto a river punt for transport to a Bundaberg sugar mill. A horsedrawn 'German' wagon has been reversed onto a high wooden jetty and the labourers have off-loaded some of the cane it was carrying onto the punt waiting below. The punt is more than half full of cane, with stalks piled above the waterline, and one labourer is fixing vertical poles to the punt to keep the cane in place.