The Queensland Society of Sugar Cane Technologists was founded in March 1929. When CSR mills in northern NSW sought closer association with the Queensland Society, a newly constituted organisation was created in 1979 called the Australian Society of Sugar Cane Technologists.
This was the direct consequence of the inauguration of an International Society of Sugar Cane Technologists which took place at the Pan Pacific Congress in Hawaii in 1923. The second triennial congress of this body was convened in Havana, Cuba, in 1926.
Queensland was represented in Havana by Seymour Howe, then General Manager of Mulgrave Mill. Also at that congress was Norman Bennett, Queensland Government travelling scholar, who was a student at the Audubon Sugar School in Louisiana, USA.
While at the congress, Messrs Howe and Bennett became confirmed in the view that a Queensland branch of the International Society would be of great benefit to the Queensland sugar industry. It was agreed that Bennett should pursue this objective on his return to Brisbane in 1928.
The proposal was well received by Queensland sugar mill technologists. A meeting was convened by the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations in Mackay in March 1929 attended by 27 delegates representing 16 mills and eight engineering associates. After four days of technical discussions, the delegates enthusiastically decided to form the Queensland Society of Sugar Cane Technologists, with Seymour Howe as president and Norman Bennett as honorary secretary.
The first conference of the Society was held in Cairns in 1930. A constitution was adopted which provided for an agricultural section, in addition to that of mill technology. The society by then had a membership of 119. Today the Society has a membership of about 400.