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Australasia; A Cornelian Continent
- The University Press of Kentucky
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Australasia A Cornelian Continent Being a migratory apiarist is no game for a woman. —Kylie Tennant, The Honey Flow, 1956 Honey bees are not native to Australia, and from its inception as a penal colony in the late seventeenth century, the English arrivals to the country were never charged with that Christian ideal of creating a land of milk and honey. There were no ancient iconic goddesses as with Asia or cave drawings of honey hunts as with Europe, India, or Africa. Yet honey bees did well in Australia if they were able to survive the difficult oceanic journey. Because England imposed a powerful cultural template on Australia and New Zealand, Australian women beekeepers had conventional feminine paradigms within which to work, such as the good wife, the angel of the house, and the new woman. But as in North America, frontier conditions never met British conventions for women. Australia also had influxes of international immigrants. Major waves of immigrants from Europe in the post–World War II period, Vietnam in the 1970s, and India in the 1990s meant that Australia’s codes for women have never been static. The most articulate nineteenth-century writer about bee transportation difficulties was Mary Bussell, who emigrated from England to Western Australia in 1834. The Swan River Colony, now the thriv275 Beeconomy 276 ing city of Perth, began in 1830 and had all the attendant difficulties of pioneer life. Bussell wrote on March 3, 1834, “I am very anxious about my bees. So many have died within the last day or two.”1 On March 4, 1834, Bussell wrote, “I have cleared away all my poor dead bees. From the number, I believe very few more could be in the hive and I reproach myself for bringing them away, but to die at sea. I have been obliged to remove the bees that are dead from the hive once or twice, since on one occasion a great many of the poor little things revived and at night returned to our scuttle—bees in every direction.” These bees were also cranky: “Mama, Mr. Sherratt’s children, and myself were dreadfully stung, nor did we succeed in saving any of them. The few we caught died before daylight when I got up to return them to the hive.” The bees’ days were numbered. When Bussell arrived at the Swan River Colony, she wrote that “Foot’s dog and cat” were the “only live things to be landed.” Five years later, Mary Bumby sailed for New Zealand with her brother John Bumby, who was to become the new superintendent of missions in that country. Continuing a long tradition of bees, migration , and Christianity, Bumby intended to serve as her brother’s housekeeper. The sailing ship James left Gravesend for New Zealand on September 20, 1838, and reached the Hokianga River in March 1839. Miss Bumby’s hives most probably survived the journey. Although her diary offers graphic details about her introduction to a new culture, it is far too short for an accurate reflection of beekeeping. During the same time, Lady Eliza Elliot Hobson, wife of Governor William Hobson, arrived in New South Wales, Australia, in 1840 with bee hives. According to Peter Barrett, “The Hobsons had brought bees with them from Sydney in 1840, though Rev. Taylor states that this hive did not increase.” No records of Lady Hobson’s beekeeping experiences exist, however. She and her children, one son and four daughters, returned to England in 1843.2 In 1842 Elizabeth Macarthur kept bees on her verandah while she increased merino sheep herds. Her papers contain descriptions [54.162.130.75] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 06:55 GMT) Australasia: A Cornelian Continent 277 of top-bar box hives. One of the more famous English beekeepermissionaries , William Cotton, “paid a visit to Mrs. Macarthur at Parramatta who has a capital apiary.” He ends his diary entry noting a request “begging [Mrs. Macarthur] to fulfill her promise of sending me some Bees.”3 We do not know whether she followed up with her promise, although Cotton returned to England. Mary Ann Allom received the most recognition for her beekeeping , specifically in her successes in transporting bees from England to New Zealand. The Royal Society of Arts and Commerce in 1845 awarded her its silver Isis medal. Fortunately, her daughter, Amy Storr, recorded the preparations that Allom made for transportation. She wrote, “I well remember the months of anxious...