CSR Refinery, Yarraville

CSR Refinery, Yarraville
Location of CSR Refinery, Yarraville in Victoria
Location	265 Whitehall Street, Yarraville, City of Maribyrnong, Victoria, Australia
Coordinates	37°49′05″S 144°54′20″E / 37.8180912°S 144.9056199°E / -37.8180912; 144.9056199Coordinates: 37°49′05″S 144°54′20″E / 37.8180912°S 144.9056199°E / -37.8180912; 144.9056199
Design period	1872 - 1890s (late 19th century)
Built	1872 - 1980s
Official name: CSR Refinery (former), Colonial Sugar Refining Company Refinery, New Farm
Type	state heritage (built)
Significant period	1872-1970s (fabric) 1872-2015 (historical)
Significant components	boiler room/boiler house, office/administration building, bulk sugar store, raw sugar store, engineering building, wharf

CSR Yarraville is an operating sugar refinery at Whitehall Street, Yarraville, City of Maribyrnong, Victoria, Australia. It was built from 1872 to 1980s. It is also known as Colonial Sugar Refining Company Refinery of Yarraville. It was added to the Victorian Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

The CSR Refinery at Yarraville was erected by the Colonial Sugar Refinery Company in 1872. Founded in Sydney in 1855, the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (now CSR Limited) has come to dominate the Australian and South Pacific sugar industry. Attempts at growing sugar cane had been made in Queensland prior to separation of the colony, however it was Captain Louis Hope's success in the 1860s which saw government encouragement of the growing of sugar cane in the colony. Plantations developed in the Cleveland, Beenleigh, and Caboolture districts and new areas along the coast quickly opened up including by the 1870s in the Maryborough, Bundaberg, and Mackay districts with sugar refining beginning on a small scale with the opening of the Yengarie sugar mill near Maryborough in 1873 and later the Millaquin refinery at Bundaberg in 1882. By 1874, Queensland was exporting sugar to other Australian colonies. By the 1880s sugar was being grown further north in the Burdekin River, Herbert River, and Cairns districts. Moreover, encouraged by Queensland Premier Thomas McIlwraith, southern capital and advanced technology was beginning to reach northern plantations. The most important of these southern companies was the Colonial Sugar Refining Company who acquired large tracts of land for the cultivation of sugar in the Mackay district and established 3 large mills in North Queensland.