World Bee Day celebrations
May 12, 2026
What an empty white sheet taught us about citizen science
July 25, 2026
A small tunnel in a piece of timber might not look very exciting at first—but for a native bee, it can become a nursery for the next generation. Over the past year, ACT for Bees and Other Pollinators has helped children across Canberra discover this hidden world.
Inspiring the Next Generation of Pollinator Protectors
Our project, Connecting Children to Nature Through Building Bee Hotels, has encouraged around 200 students to explore the fascinating lives of native bees while taking practical action to support biodiversity.
Through hands-on workshops, participants learned about the vital role pollinators play in healthy ecosystems and food production, while discovering that Canberra is home to an incredible diversity of native bees.
Children decorated their own pre-drilled native bee hotels and learned how cavity-nesting native bees use small tunnels to raise their young. By taking their bee hotels home or installing them in school gardens, students gained a sense of ownership and responsibility while continuing to observe and record native bee activity.
The excitement and curiosity shown by participants has been inspiring, with many children eager to share what they had learned with their families.
Building Community Connections
The project, made possible by a grant from the ACT Government, has connected ACT for Bees with a wonderful range of community organisations and schools, including:
- Junior Rangers
- Molonglo Conservation Group
- Ginninderra Catchment Group
- Majura Scouts
- Majura Primary School
- Canberra City Farm
We are also looking forward to delivering our final workshop with a school in the Molonglo Valley, completing an exciting year of community engagement.
Each workshop has shown that learning about nature is most powerful when children can see, touch, build and create.
Alongside the workshops, ACT for Bees has installed permanent, medium-sized native bee nesting sites at key locations across Canberra.
These nesting sites provide valuable habitat for native bees while serving as long-term educational resources for schools and the wider community.
Each installation includes professionally designed interpretive signage (PDF 1.85MB) introducing visitors to local native bee species, their nesting habits and the native plants that support them.
We are incredibly grateful to Peter Abbott, Canberra’s local native bee expert, for sharing his knowledge throughout the project, and to Fiona Edge of Edge Designs, whose engaging interpretive signage brings these stories to life for visitors of all ages.
Thank you
ACT for Bees and Other Pollinators sincerely thanks the ACT Government for supporting this project through its Environment Grants Program.
We also thank all of our volunteers, schools, community organisations and partners who helped make this project such a success.
Together, we are creating a more pollinator-friendly Canberra—one bee hotel, one child and one conversation at a time.
What can you do?
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- Hear Julie Armstrong on ABC Radio talking about how an Environmental Grant helped fund these workshops (skip to 44m 45s)
- Plant a pollinator-friendly garden
- Find out about the ACT Government's 2026/27 Environment Grants - applications close on Tuesday 25 August 2026.
