The author's interest in beekeeping arose from a research project commissioned in 2002 by the Apiary Industry Consultative Committee of PIRSA and the Kangaroo Island Beekeepers’ Association. This was to establish when and how the Ligurian bee was introduced to South Australia, thence to Kangaroo Island, and something of the breeding program of the government apiary formerly based on the Island at Flinders Chase. A closer look at the near outer-urban nature, rather than its rural operation, of much of South Australia's early beekeeping resulted in a paper, 'Bee breeding: Show and Tell in the City', which was presented at the 13th State History Conference of the History Trust of SA in May 2004, Adelaide. Further discoveries about the history of this essential part of South Australia's agricultural makeup are continuing.