Tomago asphalt plant beehive

The team at Tomago, NSW are ~buzzing~ with excitement after the installation of their first beehive, which coincided with World Bee Day on the 20th of May.

This installation is the first part of COLAS’s biodiversity initiative to roll out beehives across our fixed plant sites where the conditions permit to facilitate pollination of the local flora.

One of the main concerns with hosting a beehive on a working site is people being stung. To address this concern, the Australian native stingless bee was identified as being the most suitable type of bee to house at the Tomago asphalt plant site.

Unfortunately, the project faced delays due to the outbreak of the deadly varroa parasite last year. We thought we had seen the last of our run of natural disasters after the bushfires, floods, covid and now a bee virus! Consequently, the local bee population in a 25km radius of Newcastle was put into lockdown to curtain the further spread of the deadly parasite. Despite the setbacks, we remain committed to our initiative and are doing everything in our power to ensure the safety and well-being of our local bee population.

Our safety team, led by Steven Crockett, conducted a thorough risk assessment to determine the best location for the on-site beehive so that it would not interfere with the daily operations of the people and the bees.

So next time you visit the Tomago office, ‘bee’ aware of our cohabitators.