About Us
FEWSTER FAMILY HISTORY AND BEEKEEPING
In 1898 John Fewster left the Newcastle coal mines in England to join his brother Robert in Australia. John’s wife Sarah and three (3) daughters, arrived one year later in 1899. They lived in Kalgoorlie until 1902 when the family moved to Muchea.
John, Sarah and family moved to Muchea and lived in an old tin shed near a swamp on Roberts property. John Fewster purchased land about a mile inland from Robert’s property along the Midland Railway line. This property was called “Greenside”. Life was very tough for the Fewster Family, and the struggle to survive began, with an additional six (6) boys and two (2) girls equalling eleven (11) children in total.
Land was cleared and a few acres of vines, citrus, mixed stone fruit and fig trees were planted. Kangaroo meat, wild ducks, wild turkey, rabbits and birds were plentiful in those days and the family was self sufficient and in later days, cows were bought and milked for cream which was sent to Perth for butter making. For the family to survive John worked on the Midland Railway with a gang of four men, maintaining the line from Muchea to Gingin.
Robert Fewster (1st Generation Beekeeper) (Uncle Robert) found himself in financial difficulties and acquired a job working at “Cheriton” in Gingin. Planting some 10 acres of irrigated orange trees.
“Cheriton” is now known for its two storey historical house and wine. Robert later moved on to Harvey, at the request of the State Government of the day to plant Apple trees in the region and while in Harvey he became very interested in bees. This was the beginning of very long association of the Fewster Family with the Bee Keeping industry of WA
Uncle Robert had about 50 hives and the Fewster boys (Vince, Jim and Nelson (aged 13yrs)) would help their uncle with his bees. When he died in 1919 he left his bees to his eldest nephew Vince.
The Fewster Boys were all good market gardeners and worked on the land by growing fresh vegetables for the Perth markets and in later years as they acquired land went into wheat farming, citrus, sheep and beef and Apiculture.
Bee keeping, till this day continues to dominate through the generations of Fewster Families:
Nelson Fewster (2nd Generation) left school at 13 in 1922 to work on the bees. He was a beekeeper for 67 years of his life (b: 9.3.1908 - d: 26.10.1999). Nelson married Olive McGlew (one of 9 children) on 22 September 1934 and moved to GINGIN with 2/6 (two shillings and six pence) in their pocket. Olive generously gave the 2/6 to the church collection on Sunday. They had 5 children (3 boys & 2 girls).
The original business name was NH Fewster & Sons which commenced in 1966 with all the boys, Colin David & John, as part of the business. John left school at the age of 13 to work in the business. John and his wife Kerry, over time, bought out Colin and David and renamed the business Kuyan Apiaries in 1994 to become the largest apiary in Western Australia. The name “Kuyan” derives from the aboriginal name for “honey bee”. It was felt at the time, when John and Kerry took on the beekeeping business, that it was a way to acknowledge and appreciate the original landholders care of our beautiful natural resources. The two boys, Stephen and Paul are the 4th Generation Beekeepers. The two daughters have been involved in the business from time to time.
West Coast Honey, Heaven from a Hive, opened its doors in 2003 and welcomes tourists, locally, intrastate, interstate and from overseas to experience the honey tasting and viewing the process of extraction.
Nelson Fewster kept diaries from 1936 to 1999, where he recorded the location and production of his bee hives and recorded weather conditions and rain measurements. Rainfall records show that the Gingin area would record an annual rainfall about 40 inches every 10 years, but that hasn’t happened for 40 years. (In 1994 diary entries were a little infrequent for a time, after losing his wife, after 60 years of marriage). Nelson’s diary entries were used recently to provide useful data for the Department of Agriculture on matters such as bush regeneration after fires and for a submission for the Regional Forest Agreement.
In the early days a good day’s work would have been a dozen or so 60-pound tins. During the war Nelson was “manpowered” because the defence forces needed beeswax in big quantities for ordnance shells. (every shell was coated with wax to minimise wear on the inside of the barrel). In 1975 the business experienced its highest Honey producing year with 16 (sixteen) 44 gallon drums of honey extracted.
Hives have been taken to many forest reserves throughout the state, depending on the seasons. From as far north as Jurien Bay, east to Coolgardie and as far south as Pemberton for the “Karri” flow.
Beekeeping
1930 - honey was extracted on site, by hand spinning a few frames at a time, which was then placed, into 1 gallon tins . Beehives were kept close to home and only moved approximately 30 miles away from home due to the abundance of bush and large eucalypt trees.
1940 - 1950 a bigger truck to move bees further a field was used and the extraction of honey was done in a specially built mobile honey extracting caravan on site. New honey extracting equipment would spin 30 frames at a time.
1960 - 2000 there was a requirement to move bees further afield due to loss of bushland, trees slowly being removed, dying or being clear felled in state forests and urban sprawl. Bigger trucks were used to move hive’s around, sometimes travelling distances of 650 kms to productive sites due to extensive clearing.
2004 saw a substantial increase in honey prices due to world and Australian shortage of good honey. A greater shortage of honey, due to too not enough rain over the past few years to sustain the growth in our native bush land reserves and eucalypt forests. Quality assurance issues and health control have seen changes in the extraction of honey now taking place to central extraction buildings with stainless steel equipment and large central extractors taking up to 128 frames at a time.
2005/06 has seen a dramatic decrease in the world price for honey due to Argentina and China entering the market in a big way. At this present time it is sad to see honey prices below the cost of production and it raises the question as to the future of professional/commercial beekeeping in Australia specially when “Western Australia” has the best/cleanest honey in the world.