Beekeeper Rod Whitehead looks to the sky. He wants it to rain. The quietly spoken 68-year-old honey man appears worn by a life of hard labour working outdoors for long hours. The recent fake honey crisis is nothing new.

"We suspect it started when I did over 40 years ago," he says. It has been a dirty little secret within the industry for years. Rod's son Greg Whitehead says, "We've never seen evidence of it until now. The assumption was made mostly on the quantity of imported honey compared to the originating country's reported production figures."

Ben Goldsworthy of Beechworth Honey, at an almond farm. Bees play an important role in pollination. Photo: Jason South

The Whiteheads, Rod and sons Greg and Don, see much bigger problems with Australia's honey business.They are relatively small producers with about 1200 hives based in Milawa in Victoria's north-east, selling their honey under the Walkabout Apiaries label.

Like other beekeepers they are devoted bushmen who lead an itinerant life. They travel more than 100,000 kilometres each year searching out the best native forest for their bees. Inside their heads is immense knowledge of the forests, the climate, the rainfall, the seasons and the lie of the land. They are truly national treasures and the honeys they produce are jewels – jewels that are massively undervalued by a complacent Australian public, who neither understand nor appreciate the unique honeys that are extracted from the Australian bush. And we are in danger of losing them before we know what we have.

Rod wants it to rain