History: From sugar cane by-product to war-era wax polish

Nambour’s Wax Factory in the 1940s.

From Nambour Museum

One of the district’s unusual businesses was Nambour’s Wax Factory.

It all began because a former cane farmer from the north, Canadian Frederick Henry Gilmore, was working on a process to obtain wax from mill mud, a by-product of sugar-cane crushing.  

During World War II many imports including wax were unavailable. 

In 1943 , Army Headquarters approached Fred Gilmore about producing wax. 

A factory was built next to the tramline in Howard Street and here the extraction of wax from filter press began. 

By 1944, the factory was in full production providing wax for items such as carbon paper, teleprinter ribbons and polishes. 

A local store, Heaton & Perren advertised tins of “Chief All Purpose Cane Wax Polish” for three shillings and fourpence (34 cents) telling its customers that the polish was “easier to put on; doesn’t smear; lasts far longer; safer to walk on; gives an amazingly hard brilliant finish”.  

Continuing with the sugarcane theme, the store also advertised cane knives  -  “To produce the wax the cane must be harvested”.   

Production continued until 1961 when the factory went into voluntary liquidation. The building was dismantled and sold as scrap, the land sold and today serves as the Big W carpark.

Involved in the Nambour Wax Factory were the sugar mill’s chief chemists, Albert Shearer and later his nephew Vince Eglintgton.  

Thanks to a donation from Vince, the Nambour Museum  was able to add original samples of wax to its Wax Factory display.