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Popular Adelaide 18-hole golf courses  - West Beach Parks Golf’s Patawalonga Golf Course - has added bee hives to its green, announcing the new additions on World Bee Day (20^th May) to raise the important biodiversity role of bees across the industry.

Six beehives have been added to the West Beach Parks Golf Patawalonga Golf Course, at West Beach, as part of an environmental plan to protect and enhance local biodiversity.

The bee hives - the first known to have been placed on a golf course in South Australia - have been installed in the recently revegetated native trees, bushes and grasses that make up the course.

West Beach Parks Chief Executive Kate Anderson said West Beach Parks Golf felt adding bee hives to the course was a natural inclusion following the recent completion of biodiversity works, including removal of non-native trees and plants and replacing them with 31 species of native riparian and coastal flora species.

Anderson advised “The six beehives are safely situated away from the short grass of the greens to ensure our busy bees are foraging and pollinating the 7000 native plants added to the golf course as part of our ongoing Environmental Sustainability Plan to protect and enhance local biodiversity.”

She said the first honey was harvested in April and due to arrive from the beekeepers in coming weeks to be shared among West Beach Parks Golf staff.

Beekeepers Jorg and Sabine Pangerl, directors of Adelaide Bee Sanctuary, said about 50,000 European honeybees (Apis Mellifera) inhabited each of the hives at West Beach Parks Golf, believed to be the first in South Australia with beehives located on the golf course.

Pangerl added “Golf courses, designed with natural habitats and conservation areas that include native plants attractive to bees, can serve as valuable habitats for these pollinators, contributing to their conservation and supporting biodiversity.

“While golfers frequent the courses, large areas of a golf course can remain relatively undisturbed, providing a peaceful environment for bees to forage.”

More information on World Bee Day 

Image top: West Beach Parks Golf Beekeeper Jorg Pangerl with bee hives; West Beach Parks Golf Beekeeper Jorg Pangerl with golfers Nell Williams and Moira Dawson

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