Parliamentary triangle is ideal for bees because Canberra’s centre is relatively free from pollution and has a good range of plants

Plan bee: parliament to produce honey to sell in shop and give to dignitaries

It is a fact that Canberra has its fair share of honey-tongued politicians but parliament is about to produce its very own product.

Three beehives have been installed in the grounds around Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra to produce honey for sale in the shop and to give as gifts for visiting dignitaries.

The project is the work of Cormac Farrell, an environmental scientist with engineering company Aurecon, in conjunction with the Australian National University’s Apiculture Society and the Department of Parliamentary Services.

Farrell had the hives in Aurecon’s office space in Canberra but when they moved offices to a premises less suitable for bees, the hives had to find a new home.



He said the bees range 5km from the hives so the parliamentary triangle is ideal because Canberra’s centre is relatively free from pollution and has a good range of plants.

“The parliament’s landscaping crew have been brilliant to deal with,” he said. “They maintain the gardens almost completely pesticide free and there are eucalypts, with an understory of tea tree, there is cherry blossom in spring and a big stand of argyle apple nearby.”



Farrell said a former MP William Yates, who served in both the British parliament and the Australian parliament, kept bees for a time in the Old Parliament House during the 1970s.

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Yates tricked the then speaker Billy Snedden by asking for permission to keep bees on April Fools Day. Snedden thought it was a joke and agreed.



But today’s hives will house the latest in bee technology, fitted with sensors to monitor the health of hives as well as the Australian-invented flow hive, to allow easy harvest of honey.

Farrell is passionate about his bees and is also working with so-called sentinel bee hives at Canberra airport. The bees act as a first response team to detect pests and diseases, which can be picked up immediately in the hives.

He says while it might seem weird to some to keep backyard bees in parliament, for his grandparents’ generation it was normal.

“Bees help people understand how seemingly small things connect through to big things,” he said.

“Our cities are not concrete jungles, we can still have plants and we can produce food, bring some culture and real life to the place.”