Bees in Australia

I just had a chat with my father back in Australia and he has resorted to going around his vegetable garden with a artist paint brush pollinating his plants by hand, oh the joys of retirement at 81 years old.I have suggested that he really should look into getting some bees. There is a native Australian social bee (lives in a colony) which is sting-less and would be suitable for his garden. These bees live in smaller colonies than the European Bee and early colonists watched brave Australian Aboriginals gather honey with out the aid of masks and protection not realising these were a sting less variety. If course these bees live in temperate climbs an do not have the need to store honey for the winter months so the colony's stay compact the estimate that you could harvest about 1kg from a colony a year (compared to 20 to 50 kg a year with the European bee). It is for the pollination and not the honey that he needs the bees, the same applies to all of us as 33% of everything we eat requires an insect pollinator. I hope you will support a local bee-keeper or bee conservation group or invest in some nice sable artist brushes.