When conservation educator and bee specialist Dr Megan Halcroft moved west over the New South Wales Blue Mountains to a tiny village near Lithgow two years ago, she took her expertise in native pollinators with her.

While previously she worked to conserve native pollinators in coastal areas, she has now refocused her efforts and research to the central west of New South Wales.

It was in this food bowl area, rich with orchards, vineyards and other agricultural crops, that Dr Halcroft said native pollinators played a vital part.

But their role is often misunderstood and their survival threatened.

Threats to Australia's native pollinators

Australia has about 1,600 species of native bees, as well as other pollinators such as wasps and flies, but they are under threat.

"Because we keep clearing the land for housing developments and agriculture, we spray a lot of pesticides and fungicide and we have removed their food source and their habitat," Dr Halcroft said.

Since moving to Hampton near Lithgow in the central tablelands of New South Wales, she has studied the local pollinator populations and found up to 10 species of native bees in her area alone.

She said there were usually between 250 and 300 species of native bees within a 100 kilometre radius of a specific area, meaning the central west of New South Wales would have hundreds of them. Two native hoverflies on a paper daisy growing beside the Bells Line of Road near Lithgow, NSW. ( ABC Central West: Melanie Pearce )

Economic and biodiversity role of native pollinators

Dr Halcroft said she was working hard to spread the word about the importance of native pollinators, particularly among food growers.

"There's an awful lot of people who don't know a lot about the importance of native bees, especially in the country," she said.

She said pollinators were vital to keep plant species flowering and re-producing, and this included food crops such as fruit, wine grapes and vegetables.

"They've found in overseas studies, it's between a five and eight fold increase in fruit-set when they have wild pollinators in the area."

A coordinated approach

Dr Halcroft and her company, Bee Business, has been engaged by Local Land Services (LLS) in the central tablelands to promote and educate the community about the role of native bees.

A workshop in Orange has been organised with orchardists, viticulturalists and other farmers, along with LLS and Landcare groups to hear from Dr Halcroft.

"I hope to ... increase people's understanding and their knowledge of bees, and then being able to modify how they manage their land," Dr Halcroft said.

A 'bee hotel', stuffed with sticks, clay-filled besser blocks and bundles of plant material made by students at Lithgow High School. ( ABC Central West: Melanie Pearce )

She said such changes were not expensive and could involve planting flowering species in between or at the ends of rows of trees or crops.

"[They] don't have to be native plantings but they [natives] can also draw in beneficial insects such as native predators like wasps, hoverflies and shield bugs that eat the pests in our crops," she said.

"But it's difficult with the natives because they usually flower just in spring and summer ... so you do need to introduce some exotics to have that floral resource consistency."

Children as pollinator preservers

One of the key tools in conserving these native pollinators appears to be young people.

Dr Halcroft has done a number of workshops with local schools and helped students make bee "motels" or more elaborate "hotels", which can provide habitat for the native insects where it is lacking.

"Pocketed around the place [they] mimic what their natural habitat would be," Dr Halcroft said.

A 'bee motel' made with a toilet roll and paper straws sits in a tin can strung from a tree at Wellington, NSW, made from a kit provided by a local Landcare group. ( Supplied: Jean Ellis )

The Mid Macquarie Landcare group based in Wellington is also harnessing the power of children, and recently handed out about 60 kits to make bee motels from toilet rolls and paper straws.

Group coordinator Jean Ellis said there was room for more understanding among landholders about the role of native bees, and children were the way to change that.

"I've found that the parents that came with the children were very keen to know more," she said.

Mid Macquarie Landcare and Dr Megan Halcroft will be participating in Australia's first ever National Pollinator Week from November 15–21.