Up to 25 millimetres of rain fell on the Burdekin crushing district around Townsville on Monday and Tuesday -- from the same weather system which knocked out a significant section of the wheat crop to the South in falls on Sunday. The latest falls closed the four CSR Ltd crushing mills in the district on Tuesday.

Officials at the crushing mills told Reuters by telephone on Wednesday that the mills would remain closed for a week or possibly slightly longer.

Mills had been "stopping and starting" before the full shut-down, partly so they could crush burnt cane before it died.

But the rule of thumb was that a few inches of rain equalled a mill closure for about a week, the officials said.

The latest stoppage, as the end of the El Nino drought deluges most of the growing area in Queensland, continues the battle with theweather that Australia's 1998 sugarcane crop has waged since early September.

With the harvest now more than three-quarters complete, Ian Ballantyne, general manager of growep organisation CANEGROWERS, last week described Australia's 1998 sugar offering as "one of the worst harvests in living memory".

That was before the latest rain.

Bureau of Meteorology figures show that about 100 millimetres of rain fell on most Queensland canegrowing areas over the week. Falls mostly ranged between 25 mm and 150 mm.

This followed another poor crushing week. After the latest crushing week to October 24, depleted average CCS (commercial cane sugar) sugar content so far in the year trailed more than one percentage point behind last year.

Latest figures show average CCS to date at 12.65 per cent,1.25 per cent less than the 13.90 per cent at the same time last year.

Some mills turned in "horrendous" results in the latest week, an industry analyst said.

The Pioneer mill in the Burdekin region crushed only abouthalf of its normal amount at 44,458 tonnes.

Sugar content in cane crushed at the Tully mill in the North Queensland district around Cairns was in the single digits, at 9.91 per cent.

The overall crush amounted to 1.66 million tonnes, down by 98,395 tonnes on the same week of last year.

Despite the year's production woes, Australia's marketing year was "managing, coping quite well", said one industry executive who did not wish to be named.

"We're coming to the end of the season. Queensland Sugar Corp has said virtually all the crop has been sold (and that's) a very accurate statement."

Australia had seen significant crop changes toward the end of previous seasons and would live through the present one, he said.