On Friday (20/1/23) all registered beekeepers received the news of the reopening of the border to the NSW Blue Zone. After more than six months Victorian beekeepers can apply for a permit to bring their hives back to Victoria.

For most of us this will not change anything as we never take hives interstate. For many of the commercial members this is the day they have been looking out for, the day that will be the start of getting back to normal.

The decision to reopen the border followed a rigorous process. First DPI NSW had to do sufficient testing to proof freedom of varroa in the blue zone. This was done by using a recognized system that is used around the world and provides 99.9% certainty. After this was completed all the members of the CCEPP had to agree that NSW had complied and accept the claim of freedom of varroa. The CCEPP members are representatives of all the State and Federal Governments and Horticultural Industry organizations including AHBIC and the Almond industry. Only after this lengthy, slow and time-consuming process was completed did Agriculture Victoria agree to reopen border to NSW Blue Zone.

Eradication of the varroa mite in Australia will take more time and effort, but the reopening of the NSW border is a massive step towards this. Most of us will know that no country has been able to eradicate varroa, hopefully we will be the first.

The VAA would like to thank everyone that has contributed to get to this point. There are too many to name, but I would like to mention just two groups. First the large number of beekeepers from across the country volunteering to do the hard work on the ground, many of them returning more than once. Doing alcohol washes or destroying bees at night in cold and wet weather is no fun. Well done and thank you.

Second, I would like to mention AHBIC, more precisely the Executive and staff. Many of the Executive put their lives on hold and committed themselves to the eradication effort almost 24/7. The person that deserves a special mention is the AHBIC CEO, Danny Le Feuvre. He was appointed Acting CEO not long before varroa was discovered and appointed CEO weeks later. He was and is the industry person ensuring that the decisions made, give us the best change to eradicate varroa. Thank you to the AHBIC team for the vital role in the eradication effort.

To finish we would like to remind beekeepers that if we want to stay free of varroa we all need to do our part and continue to test.