Australian Story: May 17

Next week Australian Story looks at a murder mystery that baffled investigators and affected the close-knit beekeeping communities of tranquil Woodford on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and Tenterfield in country NSW.

The life of an unassuming beekeeper proves a less valuable commodity than the honey he trades, in this tale of desperation, greed and murder in an idyllic rural setting.

“I think it frightened the community to think that somebody who was in a passive industry like beekeeping… on forty acres in a peaceful town, minding his own business… and the next thing he’s dead. For what?” – Vernon Knight, brother of Tony Knight

“We thought he passed away in bed. So for three or four days we thought he must have had a heart attack. When the coroner starting working on Tony, she realised it wasn’t a heart attack.” – Charlie Hacker, friend of Tony Knight

Beekeeper Tony Knight lived a solitary, but happy life amongst his hives, his frames and his drums of honey.

Despite his family’s view of him as an eccentric misfit, Tony was known as a colossus within the close-knit beekeeping fraternity; well respected for his commitment to research and generous spirit.

Donald Alcock was an entirely different character.

Previously implicated in unscrupulous business activities, he faced financial obliteration and a marriage in crisis. Alcock was a desperate man looking for a quick fix.

On May 30, 2007, Donald Alcock travelled from his Tenterfield home with the intention of stealing honey from Tony Knight’s plentiful supply.

His plan unravelled with the discovery that Tony Knight was at home.

“(I realised) that I was either gonna have to maim him, or hurt him bad, to knock the honey off.”

This edition traces the mysterious murder of one of Australia’s foremost bee experts, baffling police until a fortuitous event exposed a suspect with a sinister motive.

It airs 8pm Monday on ABC1.