Viria Sugar Mill Explained

The Colonial Sugar Refining Company built a mill at Viria, on the Rewa River, on the southern side of the island of Viti Levu on Fiji. It crushed from 1886 to 1895 and was closed because it was too small to be viable.^[1] Sugarcane grown along the Waidina river (a tributary of the Rewa) was transported by rail to the Viria mill through a tunnel in a nearby hill range.^[2]

Notes and References

1. Book: Moynagh . Michael . Brown or white? a history of the Fiji sugar industry, 1873-1973 . 1981 . Canberra . 0-908160-87-9 . 32 . CSR built five mills in Fiji between 1880 and 1903. One, at Viria on the upper Rewa, crushed for only ten years from 1886 to 1895 when, apparently too small to be viable, it was closed..
2. Thiele . H. H. . August 1891 . Rewa River, Fiji . Scottish Geographical Magazine . en . 7 . 8 . 440 . 10.1080/00369229108732472 . 0036-9225 . Even the hills have not been spared, and a tunnel through a range at Viria allows sugar-cane grown along the Wai-Dina to be transported by rail to the Viria Mill..