Queensland Country Hour

Fake honey is becoming more common overseas and Queensland Beekeepers Association says cheaper imports are undercutting Australian apiarists. 

It would be easy to think there's only one kind of rain for a farmer - good. But there is such a thing as spoiling rain, and it can make a big difference to the animals they're raising. 

With little warning, and no consultation, the federal government has ended Harvest Trail Services, a free program that for 26 years has helped safely connect working holiday makers with farmers, providing background checks on both parties. Now it's gone. 

Meeting emissions reduction targets requires new sources of clean energy, but ambitious state-government pumped hydro projects on undeveloped land has some rural Queenslanders asking 'at what cost?" While the merit of renewables against the cost to the environment gets weighed up, there's another hydro project that could instead see an aging mine site get a new lease on life. 

For many outback families, distance education is the only schooling option available. Even when the classroom is your kitchen and the students are your children, the state government requires a home-tutor be on hand. It's a role usually filled by a parent or, if they can afford it, a governess, but it's not formally recognised or remunerated. And even if you do live near a rural early childhood education centre, there's no guarantee you can access it.  

Tom Bouchier comes from a family of 23 butchers, and now he's hoping to do them proud at the 'meat Olympics' in Paris.

Industrial action at eight of Wilmar's sugar mills in North Queensland was over before it began after Wilmar Sugar and Renewables threatened to lock any workers taking part in the action out of the worksite. It follows almost a month of industrial action from three unions, which have been in deadlock with the sugar processor.

Just like soil and trees, the ocean is capable of sequestering carbon, and generating carbon credits. But a new report from the Indigenous Carbon Industry Network has found that first nations people are being locked out of the market because they've been too good at caring for the coastline. 

Edgbaston Reserve is 8,000 hectares of private land with global significance. Home to 37 species found nowhere else in the world, what was once a cattle station is now protected by the state and will never be mined, logged or grazed again. 

Carbon capture and storage will be banned in the Queensland part of the Great Artesian Basin, but will other state, territory and federal governments share the Premier's view that the environmental, agricultural, economic and cultural significance of the GAB is "worth protecting?"