Introduction
I have created this blog to assist landowners, investors, beekeepers and others considering developing sustainable Leptospermum plantation-based resources for the production of bio-active honey in Australia. There is clearly an information vacuum out there; hopefully, this website will go some distance in addressing that imbalance.
It is of course prudent to seek external advice on any investment decision however there are hundreds of questions I am asked all the time. This information-based website sets out to answer as many of those as possible. This work-in-progress will be updated continuously as new information becomes available and additional information is requested.
There is no claim on my part of being an apiarist, a chemist or an accountant so I avoid providing detailed advice in any of those expert areas preferring instead to have those experts contribute information directly, whether via this website or by direct contact.
I am however a horticulturist with decades of experience in establishing plantations for timber production, wastewater disposal and Eucalyptus oil production all over Australia. This experience lends itself very well to the rapidly escalating interest in Leptospermum plantations.
I have presented papers at conferences all around Australia as well as the US, Malaysia (ASEAN) and New Zealand as well have been a regular speaker in CSIRO forums in Canberra and Perth (Forestry). I participated with CSIRO in a number of Eucalyptus breeding research projects. I was National Vice President of Greening Australia for some years as well as Chair of the Greening Australia Murray Darling Basin Committee. In the 1990s, I convened two Landmark National conferences in the Adelaide Conference Centre under the auspices of Greening Australia; “Sowing the Seeds” (Direct Seeding) and “Catchments of Green” (Catchment Management).
More recently, much of my interest involves the collection and propagation and supply of superior plant material for the development of Leptospermum plantations and working closely with experts in related fields, in particular the University of the Sunshine Coast. The ongoing background work has been impacted by bushfires and floods decimating historical seed collection sites along the East Coast and then the ravages of Covid19. On top of that, we have a Varroa quarantine incursion.
I am currently a director of ERA Nurseries in Western Victoria and a specialist large-scale grower of bioactive Leptospermum seedlings.
For small-scale online Leptospermum purchases please go to the ERA Nurseries online store. (Australia only but not WA, NT or Tasmania)
For technical advice go to the contact page on this blog.
Ted Allender
June 2022