Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

R Stephens at Mole Creek is truly an iconic Tasmanian business. In 2015, the business, run by Ian Stephens and his wife Shirley, celebrates 50 years of exporting honey. The first shipment was 28 cartons containing two dozen jars of their famous leatherwood honey to the markets in New York. They now send three or four containers each season. It is the quality of their product that has kept them competitive in the New York market for five decades. As Ian told me:

We deal with people with whom a handshake is still worth a handshake.

Ian and Shirley's sons Ewan, Neil and Ken and grandson Josh now also work in the family business, which was established in 1920 by Ian's father, Mr R Stephens.

The business has grown from a pre World War I hobby to the state's largest apiary business, with more than 2,400 hives. The trademark leatherwood honey was first produced in commercial quantities in 1951, when road and transport allowed access to Tasmania's wild west coast. Tasmania is the only place in the world where golden nectar real leatherwood honey can be produced. The business employs 15 people during the peak of the season and sells product throughout Australia as well as to its loyal markets in New York. An important business for the town of Mole Creek in the Meander Valley and certainly an iconic business within Tasmania, I congratulate the family on this significant milestone.