General News
18 December, 2025
Farming through innovation
FROM pioneering harvest innovations to turning waste into wealth, the Destro family’s multigenerational cane farming operation in Babinda is built on adding value at every step.
In the shadow of Queensland’s two highest mountains, the story of the Destro family is as deeply rooted in the Wet Tropic’s soils as the sugarcane they’ve farmed for generations. It’s a story of a fierce commitment to both innovation and family.
Childhood sweethearts
At the heart of the Destro operation are Rose and Steven, childhood sweethearts who have built, not just a farming business, but a multigenerational legacy that stretches from river flats to mountainside blocks adjoining the beautiful Babinda Creek.
Along the way, they’ve nurtured a fierce passion for adding value to every stalk of cane – and every drop of potential it contains.
Rose Corradi and Steven Destro’s story began, quite fittingly, in Babinda State School. Rose would ride her bike in from the nearby family farm and Steven would catch the bus from Bellenden Ker.
What began as a childhood friendship blossomed into love, and soon after, into a lifelong partnership – both personal and professional.
Steven, who had migrated from Italy in 1955 as a young boy, was quickly welcomed into the Corradi family.
By his teens, he was already working alongside Rose’s father, Bonfiglio (‘Bonny’), who was a second-generation Italian-Australian cane farmer.
Bought first harvester
Steven, drawn to machinery and mechanics, quickly carved his own path. He bought his first harvester and began contract cutting for local farms, including the Corradi family’s blocks, in a working relationship that would span more than 50 years and into the next generation. He later expanded into contract planting.
“I didn’t go to university, I learned on the job – mechanics, welding, engineering design, you name it, I’ve done it,” Steven says.
By the time the couple took over Rose’s inherited share of the original Corradi land (after buying out her brother), they were already operating as a formidable team – with Steven on the front lines of farming, harvesting and planting innovation and Rose steadily managing the business and day-to-day family life.
Today, the Destros oversee eight farms across more than 300 hectares, some owned, some leased and all operated in a tight-knit family collaboration which spans three generations.
Generational shift
Recent years have seen a generational shift. Sons Paul and Mark are now taking the reins on operations, with Rose and Steven offering wisdom, support and oversight.
“You’ve got to pay your children well and give them the incentive to stay,” Steven says firmly.
“That’s how we’ve always viewed family succession.”
It’s a philosophy that’s paying off. Granddaughters Brooke and Cara are also happy to be involved, driving tractors, planting cane and picking up rocks alongside the rest of the family.
“We’re all out there,” says Rose. “It’s a family affair.”
The Destro family’s commitment to innovation began early.
First to cut green cane
Steven was among the first in the region to cut green cane, modifying his harvester long before it was standard practice.
He says he was also the first to purchase a billet planter built by local trailblazing engineer Hans Binder, which after countless modernisations remains in operation today.
The family also embraced GPS-guided planting and harvesting, participation in Regional Variety Trials (RVTs), and adopted precision nutrient refinement practices – the kind of forward thinking that helps buffer against the region’s often punishing climate.
Farming in Babinda is not for the fainthearted. The Destro farms sit just east of mountainous Topaz, which in one early morning downpour in September received nearly 400mm of rain, which washed down the mountainside to add to the 200mm that had already fallen in the Babinda area. The result? Silted plant cane, waterlogged paddocks, and logistical chaos.
It wasn’t the first time and won’t be the last.
Floods cause angst
Back in January and February, the family endured widespread inundation from the North and Far North Queensland tropical low.
At the time, Steven was in hospital, leaving him anxious about what he’d return to.
“The crop actually coped really well with that, I couldn’t get over it,” he says. “The boys had done a great job in ensuring the plant cane was in early and was healthy.”
Despite the challenges of early and mid-season flooding, the Destros have still managed impressive CCS scores in the 14s and 15s this year – they believe in part thanks to Paul Destro’s work with crop ripeners, which has proven particularly successful in crops that have been water-affected.
Waste by products
Beyond the paddocks, the Destros are deeply engaged in the potential of sugarcane waste products.
They’ve been involved with making everything from paper to black urea.
“It’s unbelievable what you can do with the waste products from cane,” says Rose.
“We only have a few weeks of reserve fuel in Australia, but we could be self-sufficient through this technology.
“It’s proven, we’ve done it all at Ethtec’s pilot plant in Muswellbrook and we’re telling the millers to use it.”
“We want to see it happen for our kids, for them to benefit from it,” adds Steven.
“We could be making triple the money, just using waste.”
The family believes these technologies could easily be implemented at existing mills, offering significant economic and environmental benefits.
Over the years, the combined Corradi/ Destro families have weathered it all – from floods and economic shifts to the closure of the local mill and even the ever-present threat of crocodiles.
Resilience and innovation
Through it all, they’ve remained driven not only by the future of their own farms but by a belief in the broader resilience and potential of the Australian sugar industry.
With the harvesting side of the operation now wound back, the Destros have had more time to focus on long-term farm planning, the nuances of farming in their wet climate, and adding value to the industry through conversion of bagasse.
Most of all, Steven and Rose have stayed grounded in family, while continuing to make the very most of the opportunities their own parents and grandparents left their homelands for.
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