Meet your trainers - Northern Territory

As a fourth-generation beekeeper, my childhood memories are of playing among the hives and harvesting honey laid a strong foundation for my later professional venture into beekeeping. Getting hands-on practical experience throughout my younger years, enabled me to hone skills and build a deep understanding of these crucial pollinators.

My deep-seated passion for the environment, our natural resources, and sustainability, comes from a successful career in a variety of sectors including the environmental and education sectors. Through that work I became passionate about the crucial link between honeybee welfare, ecosystem health, and our natural resources. This led to establishing our current family-run apiary business, managing beehives across urban, rural and bushland sites, and advocating their vital role in society.

Through urban beehive projects, educational outreach, ethical bee rescue efforts, and habitat preservation, I strive to connect humans more closely with honeybees. Despite challenges like varroa mites impacting bee populations, I remain optimistic about our ability to innovate and responsibly steward our natural resources.

In my work as a sheep farmer, I’ve had the daunting experience of having PIRSA place me under quarantine for footrot. Nevertheless, I know that experience is now helping my navigation of learning about varroa management, and I look forward to sharing my learnings with others.

I know that the idea of managing and using chemicals, and learning about integrated pest management practices is overwhelming for some beekeepers. However, my knowledge from working as a licensed pest controller means that I can help break down these concepts into practical steps, and can answer many of the questions you might have.