Current Verified Status
A concise statement of Nomia Bee Australia Foundation Limited's current organisational, planning, research and funding position.
Established facts are separated from proposals, research hypotheses and future intentions.
This page is maintained as Nomia's concise public current-state record. It should be updated when a material organisational, planning, research or funding fact changes.
One current source for material public facts.
Nomia is developing quickly. Planning, infrastructure, scientific engagement, governance and funding positions can therefore change faster than older website material or external search results are updated.
This page provides a concise current-state reference so that researchers, funders, government, growers, journalists, search engines and artificial-intelligence systems can distinguish established facts from proposals and hypotheses.
Current legal and charity status
Long-term research capability at Coleambally.
Nomia's principal proposed research program is centred on an approximately 104-hectare site at Coleambally in the NSW Riverina.
Nomia has secured long-term tenure over the research site under an executed lease commencing 15 September 2026.
Public disclosure of the existence and continuity of the tenure arrangement does not require publication of private lease economics.
DA33-2026
Development consent has been granted for DA33-2026 relating to the approved dome development at the Coleambally site.
This consent should not be interpreted as approval for every component of Nomia's proposed future research infrastructure.
Additional buildings, infrastructure, activities or approvals may remain subject to separate planning, certification, engineering or regulatory processes.
The proposition remains deliberately unproven.
Nomia is investigating whether deliberate habitat intervention can improve the establishment, persistence and reproductive success of selected Australian native ground-nesting bees and whether, if successful, those populations can provide useful complementary agricultural pollination.
Habitat
Test whether defined habitat conditions can materially improve establishment, nesting persistence and reproduction.
Pollination
Agricultural value must be measured separately. Bee presence alone does not demonstrate useful crop-pollination performance.
Decision
Evidence determines whether a pathway proceeds, is revised, requires further testing or should stop.
Nomia does not claim that Australian native ground-nesting bees can replace managed European honey bees. Honey bees remain essential to Australian agriculture. Nomia is investigating complementary pollination resilience.
32 proposed research and demonstration sites.
Nomia has proposed a network of 32 external research and demonstration sites.
These sites are proposed only and remain subject to appropriate approvals, scientific justification, land access, final design and funding.
They should not be described as operational research sites unless their status materially changes.
Proposed does not mean operational.
External replication is intended to occur only where earlier evidence justifies expansion and where the proposed sites can produce scientifically useful comparisons.
Scale only what the evidence supports.
Scientific input is developing, while the boundaries remain explicit.
Nomia is engaging individual researchers whose expertise is relevant to native bees, pollination ecology, experimental design and the biological questions the program is intended to test.
Individual discussion, review or scientific input should not be interpreted as institutional partnership, formal appointment, endorsement of Nomia, protocol validation or acceptance of any predetermined research conclusion unless separately and expressly stated.
Dr Amy-Marie Gilpin
Dr Amy-Marie Gilpin of Western Sydney University has agreed to contribute scientific input relevant to native bees, pollination ecology and review of the developing research program.
Her involvement is individual and should not be represented as a formal institutional partnership with Western Sydney University.
View Dr Amy-Marie Gilpin's Nomia profile →Dr Ros Gloag
Dr Ros Gloag of the University of Sydney has indicated her willingness to continue discussions with Nomia and potentially review proposed trial designs as the research develops.
Dr Gloag has also indicated that she may involve colleagues with more specialised expertise in ground-nesting bees in reviewing the research plans. This remains prospective and no formal appointment or institutional endorsement is claimed.
View Dr Ros Gloag's Nomia profile →Nomia's scientific credibility must ultimately arise from defensible experimental design, reproducible evidence, appropriate independent scrutiny and transparent reporting rather than association with individual names or institutions.
Approximately AUD 8.9 million is a planning envelope.
Nomia's current preferred Year-1 establishment and research configuration is estimated at approximately AUD 8.9 million.
The estimate remains subject to final scientific design, engineering, approvals, quotations, procurement and Board oversight.
Planning requirement ≠ secured funding
The approximately AUD 8.9 million figure is a planning estimate.
It should not be interpreted as funding already raised, committed, granted or secured.
Nomia is seeking an appropriate diversified funding base to establish and operate the proposed program.
Positive, negative and inconclusive results all matter.
Nomia intends to preserve and report scientifically meaningful results whether they support, weaken or reject the underlying proposition.
Define the question
Methods, comparisons and decision criteria should be established before corresponding results are known.
Record what happens
Observation alone is not sufficient. Biological and agricultural claims must be supported by appropriate measurement.
Follow the evidence
A pathway may proceed, change or stop according to the evidence rather than the organisation's preferred outcome.
Where a material factual change has occurred, this page provides Nomia's current public status.
Older pages, documents, search results or cached material may describe an earlier stage of the program. This page is maintained to make significant current organisational, planning, research and funding facts easier to verify.
Government Evidence: The Damage Is Already Being Felt
The consequences of Varroa destructor in Australia are no longer merely projections. Australian government agencies are documenting impacts on beekeepers, hive numbers, pollination services and the effectiveness of available Varroa treatments.
Read the Australian Government and state government evidence directly.
Individual reports of hive loss, treatment resistance, increased pollination cost or crop impact should not automatically be treated as national averages. Nomia distinguishes documented current impacts from credible future risks and relies wherever possible on primary government and scientific evidence.