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Woolgoolga, Australia: Banana grower John Arkan is an elected member of the Coffs Harbor City Council. His grandfather came to this region on the mid-north coast of New South Wales in 1895. Sikhs took up banana farming in the 1940s when mechanization came to the sugarcane industry in Queensland, where many of them had worked as laborers. Today, the Sikh community in Woolgoolga is prosperous, having diversified into blueberries, hydroponic vegetables, and other business ventures.