For an entertaining and informative overview of Australian native bees and the secrets of their lives, listen to Toby chat with Sarah Kanowski on ABC Radio National's Conversations program HERE. Toby talks about adventures in tropical rainforest in search of rare bees, new bee species discoveries, keeping hives of native stingless bees, and the lives of Australia's biggest and smallest bee species.

​
​Australia has over 1650 native bee species, from five families and 63 genera. In 2018, Bee Aware Brisbane's Tobias (Toby) Smith composed a new identification resource for Australia bees. In this free, user-friendly key to all of the Australian bee families and genera, all steps are supported by photos and diagrams to support the descriptions. The Australian bee genera: An annotated, user friendly key is designed to be as practical and easy as possible, while maintaining the integrity of the bee identification process. Making identification resources more user friendly, without losing taxonomic integrity, is vital in encouraging more people to gain expertise in Australian native bee identifications. Download a free PDF of The Australian Bee Genera HERE.

​Other Useful links

​
- Bee Aware Kids - Kindy/School Workshops and stingless bee hive sales - www.BeeAwareKids.com.au

- The Native Bee Book, by Tim Heard, 2016 - www.NativeBeeBook.com.au

- For an informative stingless bee keeping site, and for stingless bee hives - www.sugarbag.net

- The Australian Wild Pollinator Count - wildpollinatorcount.com

- NSW DPI AgGuide for Australian Native Bees - http://www.tocal.nsw.edu.au/publications/list/animals/australian-native-bees

- The Australian Native Bee Association - https://australiannativebee.org.au/

- Aussie Bee website - www.aussiebee.com.au

- Brisbane Native Beekeepers Club (BNBeeC) - www.bnbeec.com.au/

- Valley Bees (Gympie area, QLD) - mrccc.org.au/valley-bees

- Clarence Valley Bees (Grafton area, NSW) - clarencenativebees.org

- For information about Honeybee keeping in Brisbane - Brisbane Backyard Bees or Bee One Third


Easy to read books for background on bees

​
- Terry Houston, 2018, A Guide to Native Bees of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, VIC

- Tim Heard, 2016, The Australian Native Bee Book, Sugarbag Bees, Brisbane

- NSW DPI, 2016,  AgGuide for Australian Native Bees, Tocal, NSW
​
- David Goulson, 2013, A Sting in the Tale, Jonathan Cape, London

- Laurence Packer, 2010, Keeping the Bees, HarperCollins, Canada

- John Klumpp, 2007, Australian Stingless Bees, Earthling Enterprises, Brisbane

 Native bees in schools - Native bee education - Pollination education - Food production in schools
Native bees for schools - School incursions - Native bee workshops for schools - Bee education
Buy hives - Queensland - New South Wales
Brisbane - Gold Coast - Byron Bay