And now, they say the government department responsible for granting them access to public beekeeping sites has become increasingly uncooperative.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
European honey bees are prolific pollinators. (Supplied: Keely McDonald)<\/p>\n
‘Lack of support’<\/p>\n
In Victoria, the Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action (DEECA) grants licences for registered beekeepers to place their hives on public land.<\/p>\n
DEECA’s apiculture on public land policy was introduced in 2014 to encourage beekeeping in the state’s forests, parks and reserves.<\/p>\n
But Peter McDonald, owner of McDonald Honey in Castlemaine and president of the Victorian Farmers Federation\u2019s beekeeper branch, said the department was not following its own policy.<\/p>\n
“It seems like there’s a general lack of support for beekeeping on public land across the state,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Peter McDonald says beekeepers are under pressure from a “lack of support” during an already difficult time. (Supplied: Keely McDonald)<\/p>\n
Mr McDonald said there had been years-long delays in licence application processing, some beekeepers had been denied new licences and existing ones were not renewed when they lapsed.<\/p>\n
“It’s extra pressure we don’t need when we’re going through one of the toughest times for the industry in my lifetime,” he said.<\/p>\n
Honey bees feed off crops in the spring and provide critical pollination services, particularly in the almond industry.<\/p>\n
But outside of these times, public land was “vital”, Mr McDonald said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
“For the rest of the year we’ve got to keep them fed and healthy and that’s through the native forests, so it is the majority of the food source for our bees,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Seventy to 80 per cent of our honey gets produced on public land.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
European honey bees provide critical pollination services to the almond industry. (Supplied: Keely McDonald)<\/p>\n
Plan to ‘phase out’ apiaries in Wilson’s Prom<\/p>\n
Mr McDonald’s daughter Keely McDonald is an aspiring sixth-generation beekeeper and, together with her partner, is growing her hive numbers.<\/p>\n
“We need to find homes for our bees year-round \u2026 and that means accessing apiary sites on public land,” Ms McDonald said.<\/p>\n
They recently applied for sites in the Wilsons Promontory National Park, but were quickly rejected.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An email from a Parks Victoria ranger to Ms McDonald said the park’s management plan identified “phasing out apiary use of the park” because the European honey bee was “an identified threatening process”.<\/p>\n
“We currently have a number of licences which we plan not to renew when they expire,” the ranger wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A ranger has said there are plans not to renew a number of licences in Wilsons Promontory National Park. (Supplied: Keely McDonald)<\/p>\n
Ms McDonald said she was worried the same would happen at other sites, describing it as a “concerning precedent”.<\/p>\n
“If more and more parks are shut off, young farmers like me won’t have a future in beekeeping, and that affects the whole food system,” she said.Government ‘supports beekeeping on public land’<\/p>\n
A Victorian government spokesperson said apiary licences on public land would continue to be issued and that Wilsons Promontory National Park was still open to beekeepers, with “a number of active beekeeping licences”.<\/p>\n
“DEECA seeks to encourage and support beekeeping on public land except wilderness and reference areas,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
“New applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis to safeguard the national park and its exceptional conservation values.”<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Parks Victoria said it was still granting licences to beekeepers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“There is no formal policy not to grant new apiary licences in Wilsons Prom National Park,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
“A new licence was granted last year.<\/p>\n
“However, the high conservation value of the park, existing licence areas and visitor sites mean the scope for new applications is limited.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A Parks Victoria spokesperson says there is no formal policy not to grant new licences in the national park. (Supplied: Keely McDonald)<\/p>\n
Consistent approach ‘needed’<\/p>\n
Victorian Apiarists Association president Lindsay Callaway, a Maldon beekeeper, said the apiculture on public land policy needed to be implemented consistently.<\/p>\n
“Some areas are adhering to the policy, but in other areas, not so much,” Mr Callaway said.<\/p>\n
“So we would like that policy to be reinstated from the top down throughout the whole state.”<\/p>\n
He said numerous beekeepers had faced lengthy delays to their access applications.<\/p>\n
“There would be site applications one, two or three years old, and myself, I have done applications I’ve never heard boo on,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Callaway said the Victorian government had an obligation to support the industry.<\/p>\n
“We all know the apiculture industry is the beating heart of agriculture and supports literally billions of dollars of produce Australia-wide,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beekeepers say they are losing access to public land in Victoria at one of the toughest times in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2687,103840,103841,13254,64,63,83090,81778,99,62761,59555,103839],"class_list":["post-155663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-access","tag-apiary","tag-apiculture","tag-applications","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-beekeeping","tag-bees","tag-business","tag-honey","tag-public-land","tag-wilsons-promontory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}