BUNDABERG'S cane industry in the 1960s is the backdrop for renowned Australian author Judy Nunn's latest novel, so launching the book in Bundaberg last night was the logical location.

Elianne is a sweeping story of wealth, power, privilege and betrayal, set on a grand sugar cane plantation in Bundaberg, and while Ms Nunn stressed the story was fiction, she spent an enormous amount of time researching the region's sugar industry to ensure its authenticity.

"It's fiction, so you don't want it to become a history lesson showing off all the things I've learnt," she said.

"I throw 90% of what I learn out and just use 10%, which has to be correct."

But Ms Nunn said when setting a book it was important to understand the issues of the day and how they would affect the characters.

"One of the brothers in the book is conscripted to Vietnam," she said.

"It wasn't enough to say he went off to fight, I had to know what battles he would have fought."

Ms Nunn said the novel also references well-known Bundaberg businesses of the day and deals with the biggest change to impact the sugar industry - the introduction of mechanical cane cutting.

In order to help her research Bundaberg's history, Ms Nunn said she visited a number of times and was assisted by youth/community services librarian Sue Gammon and a number of generous locals.

"I had an amazing map of the Bingera Sugar Estate drawn for me so I could wrap my head around what it would be like," she said.