Next Wednesday is International Bee Day — the one day of the year when the whole world celebrates the importance of the bee to plant reproduction and biodiversity.
But for many people, like Damian Green, every day is Bee Day.
I’ve just driven through York and further east to Kauring, to Damian’s property, Bee Central. Pulling up near a couple of sheds, I’m greeted first, and most enthusiastically, by a dog, then more sedately by a trim man who speaks in measured tones that belie his passion for bees, for honey, and for health.
A hobbyist beekeeper since forever, Damian moved to the area around 10 years ago, attracted by a mix of ideal soil and weather conditions, proximity to Perth markets and, inspired by a TV show, the suspicion that, ecologically speaking, there was a treasure waiting to be discovered.
“I saw a segment on Landline about the Flow Hive,” he says, referring to the Australian invention that allows honey to be extracted without disturbing the colony. “That got me in.”
What kept him was the science.
Australia, he discovered, is home to more than 80 species of Leptospermum — the same genus that produces New Zealand’s famous manuka honey — and some of those species produce honey that is, by measurable chemical indicators, three or four times more potent than anything the Kiwis can offer. Sixty of those species grow in WA. Thirty of them grow in the Wheatbelt. Several of the most active grow, quite specifically, here.
“Our medicinal honey is as good as, or more active than, New Zealand medicinal honey,” USC Honey Lab senior chemistry lecturer Dr Peter Brooks has said. Damian concurs.
New Zealand has one Leptospermum species; WA has dozens, and the honey derived from the most active among them — Leptospermum nitens, the species Damian has developed and trademarked as Kauring Active Honey — tests consistently stronger. A kilo retails for $300. A single jar takes six years to produce, from the selection of genetically tested mother trees through the planting of seedlings, the four to five-year maturation period, and the eight-week flowering window during which contracted hives are moved in to do their work.
Damian is a natural collaborator, working with local farmers and other groups to form “plantation partnerships” by encouraging them to “convert or diversify land into 100 per cent native active honey bee plantations”. There are also plans to work with First Nations mobs in Bremer Bay and near Katanning to promote natural Indigenous medicine.
He partners with the University of WA to support PhD research into bee health and active honey properties, and has plans to establish a discovery centre in York featuring interactive displays, an auditorium, a cafe, and a retail outlet.
Green is also developing an essential oil product derived from the Leptospermum tree foliage. The oil is “widely known for its antiseptic, anti-microbial and antibacterial properties”.
For now, there are sheds housing a distillery, extractors, and storage space for fat jars of luscious, health-giving honey, as well as Damian’s cosy living quarters and office.
“The big plan is a million tree-strong plantation in Meckering over five years,” he says. Those will add to the 225,000 already planted on the Kauring property and other plots leased to him by local farmers.
But right here is a kind of utopia.
“We are regenerating the earth, not exhausting it,” Damian says, making a sweeping gesture to the huge crop of Leptospermum nitens shrubs protected by a curtain of white gums on one side and “about 5000 olive trees” on the other.
“The roos love it here, and the bird life is incredible.”
As I head back into York for an obligatory falafel from Jules before heading home, I recall once suiting up for a visit to an urban beekeeper. Despite my precautions, I was stung. A slow learner, I think I finally understand the message of that encounter: we don’t know what we stand to lose by ignoring nature until it stings us into consciousness.
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+ Bee Central is at 720 Cubbine Road, Kauring, about a 25-minute drive from York.
+ To arrange a visit, contact Damian Green at admin@beecentral.com.au or on 0400 777 296.
+ Damian Green is speaking at Scitech on Sunday May 24 at 12.30pm.
+ To find out more about Bee Central and to purchase honey, visit beecentral.com.au
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