Visiting the beautiful country called Australia is often on the
agenda of most astute travellers, but coming across a small
incongruous town called ‘Australia’ in the Zapata Peninsula of
Cuba can be a source of immense interest and surprise to many.
One of the theories about the etymology of this town is that it was
established by Australian ex-pats working there in the prerevolution sugar industry. The small town has however played a
significant role in the history of Cuba. Fidel Castro Castro arrived
in the town of Australia on the afternoon of April 17, 1961, after
CIA-backed Cuban exiles launched a failed invasion of the newly
formed communist state.
It used to be a thriving town when the sugarcane industry was
booming and it had a large mill which was central to Cuba’s
thriving sugar industry. A decline in the sugarcane industry forced
the Australia Sugar Mill to close down and fall into ruin over the
years. It was replaced by a steam engine museum and salvage
yard that houses the locomotives and tracks that once
transported the sugarcane to and from the nearby plantation.
Today, visitors can take a ride on the old ‘Australia 1607’ steam
locomotive, passing through the fields where they can taste
sugarcane hand-picked by locals who now work at the museum.
There are also demonstrations of how the national tree of Cuba,
the towering Royal Palm, is climbed to harvest its fruit which is
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