I'm watching it now (2/6). Apart from the time capsule thing which seems nonsense (but is central to the whole thing) I'm enjoying it very much. And, so far, I'm following what's going on. Which is more than I can say about Shetland.
The time capsule thing is very australian. We buried them at school when I was a kid, in the 70s.
Background to sugar cane burning.
When the cane was cut by hand, they only burnt it if the field was infested with snakes, rats and cane toads. Mostly rats. Once burnt, the cane has to get to the refinery within hours, so puts the pressure on the cutters.
there are narrow gauge railways built just to take cane from the fields to the refinery.
Mechanical harvesters struggled to cope with the leaves on the cane, so they started burning it to make it easier to cut by machine.
The modern version of indentured workers still exists in Australia. Quite a lot of PNG workers are brought over, paid sod all, and kept in farm accommodation.
