Sugar Bag Story

Two finalists for the 2014 Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize, currently on exhibit at the National Archives in Canberra. Sugar bag is a rare bush delicacy & entirely different to honey produced by European bees. I was lucky enough to taste some in the NT 20 years ago. It has a tangy flavour and apparently one hive yields only about 1 kg of sugar bag per year! There are 600-odd species of native bees in Australia, most of these are solitary bees, like the bright blue ones you may have seen in your garden. The third photo shows the actual spiral structure which inspired the artworks.