AGM & Conferences

2025 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, CONFERENCE
AND TRADE EXHIBITION

BALLINA RSL CLUB, 1 GRANT STREET, BALLINA NSW 2478

CONFERENCE THEME:

MANAGING HIVES FOR TOMORROW, TODAY

REGISTRATIONS OPEN SOON

NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The Association hereby gives notice that its Annual General Meeting, Conference and Trade Exhibition will be held on Thursday, 22 and Friday, 23 May 2025 at Riverside Function Centre, 1 Grant Street, Ballina to conduct the following business:

  1. Opening & Welcome
  2. Present
  3. Apologies
  4. Confirmation of the Minutes of the 2024 Annual General Meeting
  5. Matters Arising from the Minutes
  6. Presidents Report
  7. Receiving and considering the financial statements of the Company for the financial year ended 28 February 2025
  8. Receiving and considering the Branch reports
  9. Opening and declaration of Executive members Election Results
  10. General Business
 
The 112th NSWAA Annual General Meeting, Conference and Trade Exhibition will be held on Thursday, 22 and Friday, 23 May 2025 at Riverside Function Centre, Ballina RSL Club, 1 Grant Street, Ballina. The theme of the 2025 Conference is “Managing Hives for Tomorrow, Today”.

Wednesday, 22 May 2024 will be host to our Hospitality Evening within the Trade Exhibition space at Ballina RSL Club, including canapés and drinks, commencing at 5:00pm, where delegates will have the opportunity to mingle and meet with some of our Guest Speakers and explore our Trade Exhibition.

The two-day Conference, sponsored by Lockwood Beekeeping Supplies, will feature presentations by industry leading experts, both international and local, including presentations by Keynote Speakers: Anne Marie Fauvel, Emily Remnant and Frewoini Baume.

 

Our feature Trade Exhibition, which will run for the two days of conference, will showcase trade booths from exhibitors from both Australia and overseas.

 

Friday night will host our Annual Conference Dinner, featuring a delicious meal and a live auction, this will be a night not to be missed!

 

Tickets are limited so get in quick to avoid disappointment!

 

We have secured limited discounted accommodation rates for our delegates at the following motels:

  • Richmond Motor Inn, 227 River Street, Ballina – 02 6686 9100
  • Ballina Heritage Inn, 229 River Street, Ballina – 02 6686 0505
  • River Street Motel, 285 River Street, Ballina – 02 6686 6877
  • Comfort Inn All Seasons, 301 River Street, Ballina – 02 6686 2922
  • Coast Inn Motel, 311 River Street, Ballina – 02 6686 3300
  • Ramada Hotel & Suites, 2 Martin Street, Ballina – 02 6618 1000 (Booking code: 496312)

Please telephone the motel directly and advise that you are booking to attend the NSW Apiarists’ Association’s AGM and Conference to reserve one of these rooms. Please note that there are a limited number of rooms held so get in fast to secure your accommodation.

 

*Note: Photographs and videos will taken at this event. By attending this event you hereby acknowledge this and consent to the possibility of having your photo/likeness/recordings posted publicly and on social media.

 

OUR 2025 CONFERENCE SPEAKERS

Anne Marie Fauvel

Anne Marie Fauvel

Tech Transfer Team Coordinator, Bee Informed Partnership

Originally trained as a Wildlife Biologist and Educator, 15 years ago Anne Marie fell in love with honey bees. She taught biology, environmental studies and sustainable food systems at Grand Valley State University, and she realigned her research priorities to include honey bee research. Wanting to focus on honey bees exclusively, she joined the University of Maryland and became the Tech Transfer Team coordinator for the Bee Informed Partnership (BIP). She conducted longitudinal monitoring of colony health in commercial beekeeping operations throughout the U.S. and coordinated large real-world commercial beekeeping studies and trials. More recently, Anne Marie began collaborating with other U.S. academic institutions to provide large data collection and field trial logistics and services as a non-biased scientific third party. Anne Marie is also the current Program Director for the American Honey Producers Association.

Dr Madlen Kratz

Dr Madlen Kratz

DPI Honey Bee Industry Development Officer

Dr Madlen Kratz works with the Department of Primary Industries in NSW as the 'Honeybee Industry Development Officer'. Her background is in research on honey bee nutrition, foraging behaviour, and pollination. She focuses on bee health and productivity for the Honey Bee and Pollination Industries. Current areas of work include evaluating supplementary feeding practices for their costs and benefits to beekeepers, assessing alternative pasture species for their value to honey bees, and evaluating the attractiveness of blueberry flowers to bees under crop covers.

Jon Lockwood

Jon Lockwood

Goldfields Honey

Jon is a commercial beekeeper, Managing Director and co owner of Goldfields Honey Australia P/L with his mother Vicki. Jon manages 11000 hives and several thousand nucleus colonies. Goldfields produce premium bulk honey, beeswax, honey comb, queen bees, nucleus colonies and pollinate almonds with all of their hives. Jon’s three siblings are also involved in the beekeeping industry. Undertaking tourism, honey packing, bee equipment manufacturing, marketing and administration. Jon developed a love and passion for the industry working along side his father, Grant, from a young age. Assisting his father with honey production, pollination and package bee exports. Jon has worked on and visited bees in several countries around the world. Jon has become involved in the industry body to assist fellow beekeepers in industry challenges and to promote the beekeeping industry as a whole.

Jon Lockwood

Jon Lockwood

Goldfields Honey

Jon is a commercial beekeeper, Managing Director and co owner of Goldfields Honey Australia P/L with his mother Vicki. Jon manages 11000 hives and several thousand nucleus colonies. Goldfields produce premium bulk honey, beeswax, honey comb, queen bees, nucleus colonies and pollinate almonds with all of their hives. Jon’s three siblings are also involved in the beekeeping industry. Undertaking tourism, honey packing, bee equipment manufacturing, marketing and administration. Jon developed a love and passion for the industry working along side his father, Grant, from a young age. Assisting his father with honey production, pollination and package bee exports. Jon has worked on and visited bees in several countries around the world. Jon has become involved in the industry body to assist fellow beekeepers in industry challenges and to promote the beekeeping industry as a whole.

Dr Emily Remnant

Dr Emily Remnant

Senior Lecturer, BEE Lab, University of Sydney

Dr Emily Remnant is a Senior Lecturer in the BEE lab at the University of Sydney. Her research addresses global problems associated with insects, like food security, invasive species, and pollinator health. Her current research program aims to understand and prevent the negative impacts of emerging viruses, parasitic Varroa mites and pesticides on honey bees, and to define the role of Varroa as a viral vector. She is currently investigating how the viral landscape of Australian bees is changing due to Varroa’s spread, and investigating the impact of two novel Rhabdoviruses on honey bee health. Dr Remnant is also working with an interdisciplinary team to develop safer, environmentally-friendly pesticides using structure-based drug discovery methods to identify chemicals that specifically target in-hive honey bee pests like Varroa, while being safe for bees.

Dr Cooper Schouten

Dr Cooper Schouten

Senior Research Fellow & Director SCU Bee Research and Extension Lab

Dr Cooper Schouten is a Senior Research Fellow and Director of Southern Cross Universities Bee Research and Extension Lab. Coopers research focuses on strategic beekeeping industry development with an engaged and applied focus which seeks to provide direct benefits to beekeeping businesses. Cooper has international beekeeping research, capacity building, training and extension experience working in several countries in the Indo-Pacific region. He is a keen beekeeper with experience working with commercial beekeeping operations.

Lindsay Callaway

Lindsay Callaway

Owner and Managing Director of Warral Maldon

Lindsay Callaway is the current owner and managing director of Warral Maldon, based in central Victoria with over 5,000 hives. Warral Maldon found its beginning with an Edward Teague Penglase in 1896 – Lindsay’s great-great grandfather, making him the fifth generation owner. Growing up in the industry, Lindsay inherited his love of bees from his dad, Roger and has continued his legacy of innovation and excellence in the beekeeping profession. He is constantly on the hunt for the best when it comes to his business, from hive production and transportation, equipment standards and biosecurity, to honey and beeswax processing, queen bee breeding, research and quality standards. Lindsay is happiest when out on the road with his bees chasing honey flows and is passionate about sharing what he’s learned to benefit the wider industry, and tackling its biggest challenges together as a community. “For generations, most people had little knowledge or even cared about where honey came from, how it was collected, processed and packaged. Most people had a distant view of beekeeping generally. But in the last twenty years, the awareness and role of bees have heightened enormously. So now there’s a lot of interest in bees, saving bees, how we need bees for one third of our crops, need bees to pollinate. And, of course, for yummy honey.

Frewoini Baume

Frewoini Baume

Frewoini has a growing interest in bees and beekeeping. Through a Global Footprints Scholarship, which allows young people to travel and experience their industry elsewhere, Frewoini has had the opportunity to see beekeeping practices in parts of the Pacific and Central Asia. Post this scholarship, Frewoini is remarkably lucky to have been invited back to join Dr. Samuel Ramsey's research team. In February 2025 they embark on their next adventure which takes them to the Philippines. Here they will be looking not only at Apis Mellifera, Apis Cerana and Varroa mites but, more excitingly for Frewoini, Apis Dorsata. Can you imagine the bee management needed here? Apis Dorsata is the original host of Tropilaelaps mite. The arrival of varroa mite in Australia seems to have, rightfully, heightened our awareness of other industry threats, including Tropilaelaps mite. Being a relatively young member of the industry her knowledge is only the tip of the iceberg so Frewoini is excited to learn more and looks forward to sharing with the industry what she sees and learns on these trips.

Carolyn Sonter

Carolyn Sonter

Post Doctoral Research Fellow, University of New England

Carolyn Sonter is a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of New England where she recently completed her Doctorate on the impact of PFAS and protected cropping on honey bees. At UNE, Carolyn is involved in pollination research and teaches biology. She is also developing a pesticide guide for beekeepers to bridge the knowledge gap between the manufacturer, grower and beekeeper. Carolyn owns a small commercial beekeeping operation that produces honey and provides pollination of melons in glasshouses.

Dr. Théotime Colin

Dr. Théotime Colin

Honeybee Health and Biology Researcher, Macquarie University

Dr. Théotime Colin is a honeybee health and biology researcher at Macquarie University. Dr Colin has over 15 years of practical experience with varroa from his time as a beekeeper in France and conducted research on miticides in Arizona. He has worked extensively on the effects that pesticides, including those used for the control of varroas, have on honeybees. His current research projects focus on developing physical and mechanical methods to control varroas in Australian climates without using chemicals. These include mite trapping, heat treatments, brood breaks and mite dislodgement devices.

Dr Asmaa Boufridi

Dr Asmaa Boufridi

Natural Product Chemist, UniSC Honey Lab

Asmaa is a natural product chemist in the Centre for Bioinnovation and School of Science, Technology and Engineering at UniSC. She completed her PhD in 2014 at the University Paris XI in creating a library of active compounds by modifying the structure of a marine natural product using chemistry and biotransformation. Asmaa joined Griffith University in 2015 as a postdoctoral research fellow focusing on the determination of active new compounds using NMR guided isolation and NMR metabolomics. In 2020, Asmaa joined the University of the Sunshine Coast as a research officer identifying and quantifying natural compounds using HPLC-MS and GC-MS. Asmaa holds a Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education and is recognised as an AFHEA.

2025 Conference Partners