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Some of our fruit growers across the Hawkesbury’s orchards are facing a mystery this spring, one that has left even the most experienced orchardists scratching their heads.
Known for their resilience and self-reliance, Hawkesbury fruit producers are no strangers to the region’s environmental extremes, hail, fire, floods, and droughts. Yet this year, many say they’re seeing something entirely new.
Producing fruit and running an orchard is a far more complicated and challenging business than many might appreciate. The nature of managing living systems presents orchardists with constant, and sometimes unusual, problems that demand innovative and autonomous solutions.
On some orchards, like Pine Crest Orchard Bilpin managed by John and Joanna Galbraith, something unusual has disturbed the process of fruit-set, the crucial stage where flowers become pollinated (fertilised) by male pollen transported from flower to flower by bees and other small insects. These pollinators normally visit millions of blossoms, ensuring the development of fruit.
“The fruit just isn’t there,” said Joanna Galbraith of Pine Crest Orchard in Bilpin. “The trees flowered beautifully, the bees were active, but somehow the pollination just didn’t happen.”
Joanna and her father John Galbraith are among the region’s most knowledgeable orchardists. John has been farming a wide range of apples and other fruits including peaches, cherries, apricots, and Nashi pears for nearly 60 years. He has also taught horticulture at Richmond TAFE for more than four decades and remains an integral member of the Bilpin fruit-growing community.
Coincidentally a workshop on p0llination held in Bilpin on October 26, 2025, hosted by the Greater Sydney Local Land Services, brought together local orchardists and an Australians expert on the subject.
The discussion highlighted a complex mix of potential causes. While it’s well known that European honey bees on Australia’s east coast have been severely affected by the Varroa mite, healthy managed hives placed in local orchards by professional apiarist Ben Porteous were observed to be active.
One theory suggests that feral European bee populations once estimated at roughly one hive per square kilometre may have been almost entirely wiped out by Varroa mite. With those wild bees gone, the abundant pollen-producing trees in the surrounding bushland, such as turpentines, were left unvisited. As a result, the remaining managed bees in the orchards may have been drawn to the turpentine blossoms rather than to the fruit tree blooms, reducing pollination where it was most needed.
Other theories point to environmental and chemical changes in the region. Some orchardists believe that the extensive use of fire retardants during the Black Summer fires could have altered tree and soil chemistry, affecting nutrient uptake. The warmer-than-average air temperatures and lingering effects of the pink firefighting deluge dropped from helicopters in 2019 may also have played a role in disrupting the delicate balance required for healthy fruit set.
John Galbraith summed up the uncertainty felt across the region.
“There doesn’t seem to be any single answer,” he said. “It could be a combination of things we don’t yet fully understand.”
Fruit-set is a crucial indicator for growers, signaling both the season’s workload and likely yield. This year, however, many orchards have reported almost no developing fruit a worrying sign that has left some questioning whether this phenomenon could return next spring.
With several large orchards in the district already reporting significant impacts, local growers are bracing for what could be a short supply of fruit across the region and an urgent call for continued research and collaboration to uncover the causes behind Hawkesbury's vanishing harvest.
This year early bird agri tourists will get the best pick of Hawkesbury fruits.
