Honey from Kangaroo Island’s protected honeybees has been chemically characterised for the first time, giving local beekeepers scientific backing for the purity and provenance of one of Australia's most distinctive honeys.
Led by researchers from The University of Western Australia with the laboratory work carried out at Y-Trace's Honey Lab in Perth, the study published in Plant Biosystems analysed 120 honey samples spanning harvests from 2014 to 2026.
Kangaroo Island is the oldest bee sanctuary in the world and home to a genetically isolated population of Ligurian honeybees (Apis mellifera ligustica), protected by law since 1885 and free of the varroa mite.
Beekeepers on Kangaroo Island supplied honey for the study including from the devastating 2019–2020 Black Summer fires, which burnt around 211,000 hectares, or nearly half the island.
Using a technique called high-performance thin layer chromatography, UWA researchers read the “nectar signature” of each honey; the unique mix of natural plant compounds carried from flower to hive.
Thirteen distinct honey types were identified, four with enough samples to define a reliable fingerprint. The main honey types were then tested against the international honey standard and passed every measure, including moisture, sugar profile, acidity, freshness and cleanliness.
Dr Liz Barbour, CEO of Y-Trace and UWA’s School of Agriculture and Environment, said the honey had a characteristically high electrical conductivity, which reflected the dominance of eucalypts in the island's flora.
“Together with the nectar fingerprint, this provides a practical basis for verifying honey sold under the Kangaroo Island name,” Dr Barbour said.
“The local beekeepers have always known their honey is special and this study gives them the science to prove it – a chemical fingerprint that sets the honey apart and helps protect it from imitation.”
The team also tracked how the island's honey changed before and after the fires with records showing a gap in honey extraction during a severe drought in the years after the fires, when beekeepers left honey stores in the hive for colony health.
After the fires, some long-standing honey types continued from unburnt coastal and eastern areas, while one pre-fire honey type disappeared from harvests after 2021, which was likely sourced from heavily burnt country on the island's west.
At the same time, new honey types emerged, including one linked to Kangaroo Island Narrow-leaf mallee that first appeared in 2026 samples and had higher antibacterial activity.
The researchers said ongoing annual sampling could turn Kangaroo Island honey into a measure of how the island's vegetation is recovering – an approach that could be applied to other fire-affected landscapes.
Kangaroo Island Beekeepers representative Sharon Simons said after the Black Summer bushfires, they had lost hives and honey yields dropped.
“It takes seven to 10 years for the vegetation to recover enough to provide the nectar our bees need to produce a good honey crop,” Ms Simons said.
“It’s really encouraging to see new areas opening up for our bees and to learn more about what makes Kangaroo Island honey so unique.”
The study was conducted by Dr Barbour, Associate Professor Cornelia Locher and Dr Md Khairul Islam, Y-Trace Honey Lab technical lead from UWA’s School of Health and Clinical Sciences, and Associate Professor Katherine Hammer, from UWA’s School of Biomedical Sciences.
The work was part of a Local Economic Recovery Project organised by the South Australian Apiarist’s Association and jointly funded by the South Australian and Australian Governments under the Disaster Recovery Funding arrangements.