Beekeeping in Australia

Circa 1940: Beekeeping at Curlwaa Public School

Beekeeping in Australia is a commercial industry with around 25,000 registered beekeepers owning over 670,000 hives by 2019.^[1] Most are to be found in the eastern states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania and in the south-west corner of Western Australia.

Beekeepers or apiarists, and their bees, produce honey, beeswax, package bees, queen bee pollen and royal jelly. They also provide pollination services for fruit trees and a variety of ground crops. These pollination services to agriculture are valued at between 8 and 19 billion Australian dollars a year.^[2] The approximately 30,000 tons of honey produced each year is worth around Aus$90 million.

Australia is the fourth largest honey exporting nation after China, Argentina and Mexico.^[3] The high quality and unique flavours of Australian honey allows exporters to charge a premium price.

There are also beekeeping hobbyists in Australia who produce honey for home consumption or to be made into products, such as mead. A few are involved in domesticating native bees.

Urban bee hives, Avalon Beach NSW

Scientist examining bees near Young, New South Wales

Pre-1788[]

Prior to European settlement Australian aboriginals consumed ”sugarbag”, honey from native bees.^[4] There are over 1,500 species of native bees. Some are social while others live alone. Most Australian native bees are either stingless or their stings are not generally dangerous to humans. However, native bees generally don't produce a large amount of honey.^[5]

Introduction of European bees[]

The ship Isabella at sea

The first imported honey bees to be successfully acclimatized in Australia were brought in seven hives aboard the convict transport ship Isabella that reached Sydney in March 1822.^[6][7] The first honey bees brought to Tasmania came with surgeon-superintendent Dr T.B. Wilson RN on the convict transport John that reached Hobart on 28 January 1831^[8][9]

Later, other species were introduced from Italy, Yugoslavia, and North America.^[10] The milder climate in Australia means less honey has to be left in the hive to feed the bees through winter compared to Europe and North America.

Bee-farming develops[]

Clara Southern, “An old bee farm,” c1900, Warrandyte, Victoria (National Gallery of Victoria)

19th-century[]

Australian farmers wishing to diversify and develop additional sources of income in the nineteenth century sometimes turned to bee-keeping as a side-line.^[11] A row of gin cases on a rural property was a sign that bee-farming was in progress as they were frequently reused as bee hives. Bee-keeping remained largely a part-time activity for farmers and people living on the outskirts of towns and cities till dedicated full-time beekeepers began to emerge.

The export of honey may have started in 1845 when an experimental shipment of honey and honeycomb was shipped from New South Wales to Britain in wooden casks.^[12] In 1895, 204,435 lbs of honey was exported from Victoria alone.^[13] Some 90% of that went to the United Kingdom.

The British author Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) visited Australia in 1871 and commented on the popularity of honey as a favourite food.

The wild bee of the country is not nearly so common as the much more generous and busier bee from Europe,- with which the bush many miles from the coast is already so plentifully filled that honey is a customary delicacy with all the settlers.^[14]

The Langstroth hive was in use by 1872.^[15] It led to greater honey production and less disease in hives. The smoker developed by Moses Quinby to pacify bees was known by at least 1895.^[16]

The South Australian Beekeepers Society was established in 1884 and a beekeeper’s association was active in Victoria in the same year.^[17][18] The Queensland Beekeeper’s Association was meeting by 1886.^[19] The Victorian Apiarists Association started in 1900.^[20]

20th-century[]

Tasmanian Leatherwood (Eucryphia Lucida) trees provide a popular type of Australian honey

In February 1903, Victorian bee-farmer Thomas Bolton (1863-1928) questioned the wisdom of clearing the forest in the Dunkeld area of the Western District. He said the blossom from the trees was annually converted by bees into honey worth £150 per square mile of forest. The land was being cleared to create grazing pastures for sheep which he claimed annually returned just £80 per square mile.^[21] Bolton sent a test shipment of honey to China early in the 20th century. He reported, “The ships company thought so highly of his honey that empty cases were they only part of the consignment left when the ship reached port.”^[22]

In 1921-22, Australia produced 7,370,790 pounds weight of honey.^[23] Honey exports that year were worth £84,417. Beeswax was also exported.

Drawbacks to beekeeping in Australia include bushfires, frequent droughts and the tendency for beeswax to melt in very hot conditions. The distance from export markets is another issue. So too is the use of pesticides in agriculture.

The production of honey and bees-wax fluctuates greatly and is determined by the flow of nectar from flora, particularly from the eucalypts, which varies from year to year. Production in 1948-49 was 53,200,000 lbs (24,152,800 kg), a record high. The average returns from productive hives in 1958-59 was 103 lb. (46.8 kgs) of honey per hive and the average quantity of wax was 1.3 lb. (.59 kg) per productive hive.^[24] Australia had 451,000 hives in 1958-59 of which 315,000 were regarded as productive. Total production during that period from all hives was 32,487,000 lbs (15,723,708 kg) with a gross value of £1,803,000. The amount of bees wax produced in 1958-59 was 417,000 lbs (189,318 kg) worth £105,000.^[25]

Victoria has long been one of the main honey producing states. In 1971, there were 1,278 registered beekeepers in the state with 103,454 hives that produced 9,804,000 lbs of honey worth $984,000, plus 120,000 lbs of beeswax valued at $68,000.^[26]

21st-century[]

About 70% of Australian honey comes from nectar from native plants. Demand for pollination services for almonds and other crops is growing. Bee-brokers co-ordinate bee-keepers to provide pollination services for such crops.

The species most commonly used for beekeeping in Australia is Western honey bees (Apis mellifera). Most commercial beekeepers have between 400 and 800 hives, but some large operators have up to 10,000.^[27]

The Australian Manuka Honey Association (AMHA), has established a set of standards for authentic Australian Manuka honey. Honey that carries the AMHA’s Mark of Authenticity must be pure, natural Manuka honey, produced entirely in Australia, and be tested by an independent, approved laboratory to ensure it meets minimum standards of naturally occurring methylglyoxal (MGO), dihydroxyacetone (DHA), and leptosperin.^[28]

Australia produces 25,000 to 30,000 tonnes of honey annually.^[29] Some is monofloral honey from a single flowering species while other honey is produced from multiple types of flowering plants. Popular types of honey include Leatherwood, Blue Gum, Yellow Box and Karri, each named after the trees that produce the pollen and nectar gathered by the bees. The purity, taste and variety of Australian honey makes it popular in Asia and elsewhere.

The locally invented flow hive for hobbyist and small scale beekeepers was launched in 2015.

The stingless native bee Tetragonula carbonaria has been domesticated on a small scale for its honey.^[30]

Bushfires in the summer of 2019-20 caused massive losses of commercial honey bees, feral bees, native bees and other nectar-loving insects. Together they normally contribute about $14 billion to the Australian economy via the pollination of agricultural and broad-acre crops.^[31] Canola and almonds are particularly dependant on honey bees. The fires also devastated some of the best nectar producing forests where bees forage. The reduced honey bee population is expected to take between three and twenty years to recover.

The Australian honeybee industry biosecurity code of practice requires beekeepers to inspect their hives at least twice a year and to keep accurate records. Hives must be inspected for the presence of pests and diseases and for hive strength, the inspection to include at least three full-depth brood frames in each hive.^[32]

Diseases and parasites[]

Foul brood[]

In New South Wales in 1889 The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser uses a leaflet from the to outline how to recognise American foul brood (caused by Bacillus alvei) in a hive and how to treat it.^[33] In South Australia, by 1891 an article in the South Australian Chronicle indicates that there was already an act in that state to attempt to control the spread of American foul brood.^[34]

Small hive beetle[]

The small hive beetle was detected in Australia by 2003.^[35]

Varroa Mite[]

The Varroa Mite (Varroa destructor) is a dangerous parasite that causes the honeybee population of hives to collapse. It is not yet present in Australia but it remains a threat.

Noted beekeepers[]

• Minard Crommelin
• Robert Ellery
• Alex Griffiths
• Ernest Hannaford
• George Hannaford
• Harold Lindsay
• Tarlton Rayment
• Thomas Wilson

See also[]

• Beekeeping
• Beekeeping in New Zealand
• Eucalyptus honey
• Honey
• Beeswax
• Mead

References[]

Other published sources[]

• Bolton, Professor H.C., "Thomas Bolton: A pioneer bee-keeper in Victoria," The Victorian Historical Journal, Vol 47 (4) November 1976, 295-305
• Beekeeping in Victoria (1981), Melbourne, Victorian Department of Agriculture, 139p
• Honey flora of Victoria (1973), Melbourne, Victorian Department of Agriculture, 148p
• Klumpp, John, (2007), Australian stingless bees: A guide to Sugarbag Beekeeping, Earthing Enterprises. ISBN 9780975713815
• Owen, Robert (2015), The Australian beekeeping manual, Exisle Publishing, Wollombi (NSW). ISBN 9781921966880
• Rayment, Rayment (1914) [First published 1914]. Money in bees in Australasia: A practical treatise on the profitable management of the honey bee in Australasia, and a Special Section Dealing with the Nectariferous Value of Indigenous Flora (1st ed.). Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd. pp. 1–293. OCLC 762734838.

External links[]

• Beekeeper Digitised newspapers & Government Gazettes, Trove: National Library of Australia.
• Australian Beekeeping Guide (2014) Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation Publication No. 14/098
• Biosecurity Manual for Beekeepers Version 1.1 (2016) (Plant Health Australia and Australian Honey Bee Industry Council)
• Australian Honey Bee Industry Biosecurity Code of Practice (2014) Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation.

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