Agriculture and Food Security Minister Peter Walsh visited Castlemaine honey business R&E McDonald yesterday to announce the reinstatements, which are part of the $400,000 “Putting the Buzz Back into Agriculture” initiative. He said the return of these “lost” sites was a “long time coming”.

“The former Labour government shut down hundreds of beekeeping sites on public land,” he said.

“Our $400,000 investment to reinstate these sites will help protect and grow Victoria’s valuable beekeeping sector and safeguard horticultural industries.

“This is a very positive outcome that opens up viable bee sites that were just sitting there doing nothing for such a long time.”

Victoria has more than 3600 designated bee sites on public land. The sites are used by apiarists throughout the year and provide nectar and pollen resource for honey production and condition bees for pollination of Victoria’s economically important horticultural and seed crops.

The reinstated sites were allocated to apiarists through a fair ballot involving 202 beekeepers in December last year.

R&E McDonald owner Bob McDonald, who has been in the industry for more than 60 years, said the reinstated sites were an important step forward for Australia’s honey bee industry.

“Right up into the late 1960s beekeepers had no difficulty in obtaining public land bee sites for the purpose of harvesting surplus nectar wherever it occurred,” Mr McDonald said. “No species of plant, shrub or tree is known to have suffered from these harvests; no bird, animal or any form of nectar/pollen gathering creature suffered, let alone went extinct as a result of honey bees obtaining nectar and pollen.”

Mr McDonald said the 1960s saw environmental lobbyists spread the belief that honey bees posed an environmental threat.

“Over the time the issue of bee sites has been encompassed in a tangled web of ‘red tape’ that is gradually strangling the viability of our industry.”