Floodwaters rose two metres in just four hours at Steve Smith's New South Wales home, and while he escaped by boat, nearby, millions of his bees were not so lucky.
"We might find a few of the [bee] boxes but I'd say they're just gone," Mr Smith said.
The water came "half way up the second storey window" of his house at Woodburn in the Northern Rivers, destroying or washing away 130 hives, each containing between 40,000 and 70,000 bees.
He has also lost shipping containers with beekeeping equipment.
After years of building his home and beekeeping business, Mr Smith is now trying to pick up the pieces
The NSW Apiarists' Association (NSWAA) estimates up to 5,000 beehives have been lost in the floods.
"Some of these guys are at their wits' end," Steve Fuller from the NSWAA said.
"We've had the bushfires, then we've had the floods on the Mid North Coast last year, and now the floods up here [in northern NSW]."
Mr Fuller, who was also hit by flooding at his Grafton property, said many apiarists will now be unable to keep pollination contracts with the berry sector, which would have flow-on effects.
"If they can't produce big plump fruit then their prices will go up, it's a ripple effect," Mr Fuller said.
No chance to relocate
There was little warning for anyone in the Northern Rivers ahead of the flooding that rewrote history.
Even with notice, moving hives is tricky business.
"Once you've got them on the truck to move them out of low lying areas you've got to find an area where you can safely put them down so they are really hard to move," Mr Fuller said.
At Woodburn, Mr Smith is looking at "at least $40,000" to replace his hives.
"And I don't know what to expect in the shed there yet, it'd be a fair cost," he said.
He said the water was so high, shipping containers and a cool room "floated over the top of the fences and out into the cane fields".
"I have sighted them. We'll just have to wait for the ground to dry out so we can get in and see if any is reusable," he said.
Report washed up hives
The apiarists' association is also calling on the public to report sightings of bee boxes that may have washed downstream.
"It might be at a beach, a river, we've had reports [of hives] in car parks, houses," Mr Fuller said.
"It's what their business is based on and every hive should be branded with the beekeeper's numbers."
Mr Fuller said uncollected hives could pose biosecurity risks to other beekeepers in the area.
The NSW Department of Primary Industries has established an emergency hotline, 1800 814 647, for animal and agricultural services, including beehive removal.
