In the remote mountain towns of Tasmania's west coast, they say the rainforest is no place to complain about the rain.
But this year, it is a dry spell that has workers worried.
"The last time I saw it this dry was in 1973," third generation apiarist Ewan Stephens says.
The Stephens family first brought beehives into the western wilderness in the 1930s.
They rely on a tree that only grows in these rainforests, the leatherwood, to produce a world-famous delicacy known as leatherwood honey.
But this year the leatherwood flowers are withering within a few weeks.
"The whole forest is dry, the moss is dry," Mr Stephens says.
"If you dropped a match, it would go like a bonfire and it wouldn't stop. I'd hate to see a fire in this area because once a leatherwood is burnt out, it's finished.
"Arrowsmith was burnt out in 1956 and not one tree ever came back — not in our generation anyway."
Rainfall at historic low levels
The west coast typically receives about 200 millimetres of rainfall every month of summer but weakening westerly winds have driven wet weather away from the region.
The result has been rainfall "in the lowest 10 per cent of historical records", according to senior research scientist at the Bureau of Meteorology Andrew Marshall.
"What we saw was less than 100 mills per month over large parts of western Tasmania. So that's less than half of what we normally get over those regions since December," Dr Marshall says.
If it weren't for a short burst of rain just before Christmas, the leatherwood might not have bloomed at all near Mr Stephens' hives.
"We had to put our staff off. We had to take [our honey] off Woolworths and Coles shelves. It hurt us really bad. We're only just climbing out of it now," Mr Stephens says.
Another burst of rain this late in the season could make matters worse, as it could rip the "very fragile" flowers from the trees.
Mr Stephens does not know how much honey production will be impacted but he and his brother are "thinking positive".
"You can't always win in this game. You don't know until it (the honey) is home in the tanks," he says.
"For the next two or three weeks, we'll cross our toes and fingers and hope the sun keeps coming out and we'll do alright."
Leatherwoods under pressure
More than 1,200 working beehives are scattered across Tasmania's forests.
Some are located within protected national parks but many sit on land managed by state logging authority, Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT).
Honey Tasmania owner Rebecca Campbell says the pressure placed on the leatherwoods by "unsustainable" forestry practices risks not just the honey industry but agricultural crops that rely on bees for pollination.
"That's about a $200 million a year input into the state. So without leatherwood, we definitely struggle in all fronts in terms of pollination," she says.
Ms Campbell says Tasmania has already lost "about 80 per cent of the leatherwood resource" since the 1960s.
"Not just due to forestry, it's also due to forest fires, also climate change is having a big impact."
STT has an agreement with beekeepers to ensure crucial leatherwood regions are protected, however, some have been inadvertently cut down in the past.
The organisation's general manager of conservation and land management Suzette Wedding says the resource is "not at risk".
"The total accessible leatherwood resource across Tasmania is about 705,000 hectares, including 136,000 hectares on Permanent Timber Production Zone land," she says.
"Of this, less than 30,000 hectares is in potentially harvestable areas which would typically be harvested on a 50- to 90-year rotation."
Ms Weeding says STT has regular engagement with the apiary industry and welcomed industry involvement "to preserve Tasmania’s commercial leatherwood resource and sustainably manage forests".
"The challenge for Sustainable Timber Tasmania is to optimise the balance between production, the large areas of conservation and the requirements of other forest users such as beekeepers. This is an ongoing and cooperative process," she says.
'Watch your country'
Mr Stephens is thankful leatherwoods near his hives are on protected land and that he has hard workers like Andrew Evans to get through difficult years.
"The season is looking alright. Bit rough to start but it's going to be alright," Mr Evans says.
Mr Evans has worked for R Stephens Apiaries since he left school and even though the work can be tough, there is nowhere he would rather be.
"This place we're in right now is absolutely unique, you will never find it in the world anywhere else.
"You see the country change from year to year. You see some bad years, you see some good years but you just got to watch your country and see what it does."
