STBA Committee 2025-26
Bob Newton
President
I retired from medical practice 3 years ago and now live at Dodges Ferry.
​
My interests are Queen breeding and being involved in the Events Committee, the Big-T group, Local Area Networking and the education of members.
​
I look forward to chairing enjoyable meetings.
Ashley Dales
Vice President 1
Ross Gordon
Vice President 2
Ashley runs a full service lift business offering 24/7 service, plus runs a construction company for architectural works, new homes and renovations.
He sits on a Not For Profit board and is overseeing major infrastructure expansion.
He keeps bees for fun, with 18 hives at the moment.
Bachelor of Agricultural Management
Governance roles – Ross has extensive experience in corporate and not-for- profit bodies in roles from secretary through to board chairman. Ross has
served as an executive member, vice-president and president of the STBA and as the STBA representative to the executive of the TBA.
Ross began catching bees in cardboard boxes in junior school and kept bees recreationally throughout his teens. He has been keeping bees commercially in Tasmania since 2012 and currently runs about 300 hives. Ross’ aspirations for the STBA are to create a genuinely inclusive and welcoming organization that serves its members, promotes the aspirations of all beekeepers and raises awareness of the plight of honeybees.
Secretary
Dawn Hendrick
Tess Kingston
Membership Officer
Born in London, UK Dawn started her career as a geophysicist in the UK seismic exploration industry before emigrating to Toowoomba in Australia in 1985. She moved to Tasmania in 2010.
In July 2024 she retired after 38 years as a Topographic Engineer in the Army Reserve. Dawn has previously been a volunteer on multiple committees and held the role of secretary for various organisations including Hobart Walking Club.
Dawn has had bees in her backyard for the last 6 years but they were maintained by the person who built her a long Langstroth hive. She is now attending the Bee Queen workshops to learn how to look after the bees herself. Dawn has held the position of Bee News editor since February 2023 and will continue in this role until an enthusiastic replacement can be found.
Keith Wooldridge
Treasurer
Started beekeeping after a swarm moved into his compost bin - over 10 years ago.
Enjoys explaining beekeeping & answering questions from interested people at various shows as well as assisting new beekeepers on STBA's training courses.
​
Peter Norris
Past President
Peter was born in Devonport [a 5th Generation Tasmanian] and grew up on the Northwest Coast. He has been in business most of his working life and with wife Trisha built up the largest non-franchised VW-Audi repair Garages in London [one still trading under his name]. Together they established extensive property portfolios in London and Tasmania. He started beekeeping as a hobby whilst living in London and went to night classes at Merrist Wood Agricultural College to learn about bees. They returned to Tassie in 1999 after 21 years in London.
He had no intention of going commercial in bees but got involved in the fight with the Government to protect the leatherwood resource. His largest achievement was the signing of the Wedge agreement with Forestry Tasmania in 2009. He was on the TBA committee for 17 years – 7 as Vice President and was President of the Southern Tasmanian beekeepers Association for 14 years until he stood down in 2021. He and wife Trisha run Heritage Honey with 4 other staff and the business has grown to over 1000 hives spread throughout southern Tasmania.
Sam Brown
Committee member
Sam grew up in world where bees were the norm. Her Dad & Mum managed bees as a commercial business, and she often helped them. After leaving school she studied to become a graphical designer and tried her hand at several different jobs before realising that she actually liked beekeeping. Her Dad said if after 5 years of looking after bees you still like them then that is what you should be doing as a job.
​
Sam is now a second generation beekeeper creating her own products under the name Brown Bees Daughter.
Melissa Jansen
Assistant Treasurer
Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Computing
Melissa is new to beekeeping, and is keen to expand her beekeeping to become her full-time income.
Although, she is new to bees, Melissa has sat on multiple NFP boards, across multiple fields, in the role of Treasurer. She brings a strong financial background to the role, having run her own bookkeeping business for the last 7 years.
Ashby Newman
Committee member
Rosemary Hochman
Committee member