You don’t need to be a bee keeper, be a keeper of bees…
by making our outdoor spaces a welcoming habitat for both new and existing bees and pollinators. Without bees and other pollinators much of the world’s food supply would end so it’s critical to support these essential links in our global food chain.
Featured News
The Your Garden – Our Future event was held on the 7th of April 2025, at the Box Hill Golf Club. This special night raised awareness and funds for the Rotarians for Bees campaign to promote the importance of bees and other pollinators, and to encourage efforts to boost dwindling numbers and prevent disease.

Rotarians for Bees and the Rotary Club of Canterbury hosted the ‘Your Garden – Our Future’ event at the Box Hill Golf Club. The Rotary theme for the month of April 2025 is Environment Protection and Sustainability and an ideal way to observe it was an evening with an enthusiastic audience of 150 Rotarians and friends. We were particularly grateful for the strong support and involvement from Eltham, Kew and Balwyn clubs.
Key speakers included Aris Petratos (former President of the Victorian Apiarists Association and owner of The 3 Bees Honey), Fiona Chambers (CEO of The Wheen Bee Foundation, Andrew Laidlaw (Landscape Architect and Horticulturist at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne) and Costa Georgiadis (everyone’s favourite presenter from ABC Gardening Australia). Jonathan Shepherd, our MC, interviewed other notable attendees including Emma Cutting (Founder of The Heart Gardening Project) and Murray Wilkinson who initiated Balwyn Rotary Club’s Nature Strip Program in Boroondara, which has now also been adopted by four clubs in Geelong.
Costa also talked with four inspirational Parkmore Primary School students about BEAP (Bee Education & Protection), a problem solving project that they developed to help educate the wider community about the importance of native bees. In June this year, they will be representing Australia at the Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI) in the USA.
There certainly was a buzz in the room and a wonderful atmosphere created by so many people who share our concern for the environment and protection of bees and other pollinators.
The key message for all, is to make gardens, whatever the size, with safe and thriving habitats that will nourish them and us.
Thanks to everyone for the support and contribution to a most memorable evening.
John McCaskill
Founder and Victorian Chair


John McCaskill, Fiona Chambers, Aris Petratos and Tracie Armstrong

Fiona Chambers – The Wheen Bee Foundation


Andrew Laidlaw – Landscape Architect at Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

Aris Petratos former President of the Victorian Apiarists Association and owner of The 3 Bees Honey

Costa with Parkmore Primary School students
The following short video captures some of the excitement in the room.
We are very grateful to our videographer Michael Demarco from Simple Souls Media.
Thanks to our Donors who have so generously supported the event
Aris Petratos – The 3 Bees Honey
Andrew Laidlaw – Melbourne Botanical Gardens
Andy’s Happy Hens
Beechworth Honey
Box Hill Golf Club
Brighton BMW
Costa Georgiadis
Emma Cutting
Daisy’s Garden Supplies
Escape Hatch Books
Jenny Sardon
Jill Woinarski
John & Liz McCaskill
Jonathan & Elizabeth Shepherd
Kew Nursery
Kimberley Grace
Lucy Hobgood-Brown
Mayvers
Michael Stillwell
Peter Kelly & Jo Rice
Readings Books Hawthorn
Rob and Karin Simpson
Rotary Club of Southbank
Ted & Rosemary Waghorn

Rotarians for BEES at the 2023 Rotary International Convention
Rotarians for BEES had a stand at the Rotary International Convention House of Friendship, Melbourne, 27 - 31 May 2023. Enthusiastic participants in the Waggle Dance Challenge at the House of Friendship.
Our Focus
We aim to educate and encourage action to support bees and pollinators and their role in agriculture & horticulture around the world, thus ensuring food security.
Powerful Pollinators
Attract bees and other pollinators to your garden, with strategic planting advice from the Wheen Bee Foundation.
Find out more.
The Waggle Dance
This dance mimics the extraordinary way honey bees communicate and celebrates bees’ crucial role in pollination and food security.
Find out more.
Disease - Varroa
Upto date advice on the Varroa mite incursion in NSW and the current eradication efforts by New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
Find out more.
What’s causing a buzz in the blog?
Have you ever watched a Waggle Dance?
Here are schoolgirls in the Democratic Republic of Congo replicating how bees show where food can be found. (Thank you, Rotary Ekanga-Mbandaka for facilitating this video!) Come join the buzz when...
Rotary District 9685 Conference
Rotary District 9685 held its conference in the charming town of Cowra NSW 17-19 March. The Rotarians for BEES team had everyone a-buzz with their great bee-themed merchandise (designed by Sue...
The Bacchus Marsh Flower and Garden Show
At the invitation of Donna Martin (current President of Rotary Club of Bacchus Marsh and Co-Chair of Environment/Sustainability for District 9800),...
Let’s Start Something new
Say Hello!
We would love to hear from you. Whether you’re a Rotarian or not, we need people like you getting involved to help create the awareness to solve the issues faced by our pollinators..