Natasha Roebig tells her Ag story

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Natasha aspires to leave a positive legacy for the Queensland beekeeping industry and believes that innovation and education are the keys to the future of sustainable farming.

As a beekeeper, Natasha sees a need to promote ethical apiary practices and disease prevention and management. She wants to encourage a new generation of beekeepers into the industry, especially women and youth. In this quest, she has dedicated much of her time to mentoring and up-skilling industry newcomers.

Her Jimboomba business, Bee All Natural, has been instrumental in encouraging knowledge sharing and industry connections and takes great pride in consistently building a solid foundation for networking and to promote empowerment. The educational platform will provide the opportunity for beekeeping enthusiasts to contribute new ideas, gain knowledge of native Australian Bees and European Honey Bees, technological advancements and will be instrumental in engaging their communities.

Natasha has worked in finance for the same global engineering company since she was twenty, leading a large national team and creating a strong professional network, helping to shape careers. Her husband Jason is a safety specialist who has mostly worked fly-in, fly-out roles. They stumbled into the world of honey and bees six years ago when their daughter Miranda, 6,was born and diagnosed with the skin condition eczema.

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Natasha used steroid creams to treat the eczema, but it was thinning her skin and her hair was falling out, so they started to look for natural alternatives. Their doctor and naturopath put them onto beeswax and raw honey and they bought a hive and developed a body balm using honey and beeswax and their daughter's skin started to improve.

What started as a hobby then grew with the honey they were getting out of the hive the best they'd tasted. They began selling it from home and at markets and people loved it. Countless hours of research and limited interactive beekeeping opportunities encouraged their passion to drive educational outcomes. Their bee business took off from there.

Working in partnership with the apiary industry, Natasha is establishing an interactive training facility in South-East Queensland, promoting innovative research and ethical and sustainable beekeeping practices. The facility will provide a safe and inclusive space to encourage information sharing, mentoring and networking amongst professionals and hobbyists. The training facility, which has growing support within its location of Jimboomba, has become a credible source for relevant regulatory updates and will work closely with Australia's Biosecurity ensuring all beekeepers are well informed and on board with securing our futures' beekeeping industry.

Bees used to get a lot of bad press but people now understand how essential bees are to pollination and helping fruit and vegetables grow.

Their focus is on education and giving back to the community. They have recently partnered with the Australian Technology and Agricultural College campus, providing educational pathways for tertiary years ten to twelve having access to the college's state of the art classroom facilities. Natasha is currently reaching out to Disabilities Australia and to local mental health and PTSD support groups, cementing her mantra being "No Barriers to Beekeeping". Her family's Apairy in Jimboomba is to become an important training base, being the honey production and workshop facility where anyone can come and interact and learn about bees.

https://www.agrifutures.com.au/

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