For four years, CannonBee's Doug Cannon has been diligently working on a unique variety of bees - especially bred to be resilient to an impending threat currently on the state's doorstep - varroa mite.
Now mostly black, with a "bit of mongrel in them" and of small stature, his bees could be the lone survivors of the parasitic mites, but it's all at risk if the Eungella pumped hydro dam goes ahead.
"If it goes ahead, I'll be leaving the state, if not the country. I just can't live in a place if this is their attitude towards the environment," Mr Cannon said.
"I definitely won't be down at the Pioneer Valley because it will be absolutely dangerous...you're putting a crumbling mountain, a volcanic mountain with natural springs and aquifers all over it. It's a matter of time. And we're in a cyclone prone region, with king tides."
Mr Cannon's business model involves working with local genetics from bush bees which have existed within Eungella's thriving natural habitat for "hundreds of years", keeping an eye on multiple hive locations to observe how they adapt to pathogens.
"You can have a pure-bred pedigree bee that might produce a tonne of honey but it's not very resilient or shows hygienic behaviours as far as trying to eradicate the mite or the hive beetle...there's a raft of different disease they need to combat," he said.
"Essentially, the bees that live without human intervention are tough, resilient bees, so I draw from their genetic traits and breed my own queens back to them, open air mate them to breed with the wild bees.
"They've evolved to the landscape and to essentially a complete colour change and they're a little bit smaller too. I'm keeping and promoting those bees, so when we get varroa mite, they might survive, whereas my purebred Italians might perish.
"It's not a matter of if, but when. (Varroa mite has) made landfall. It's a matter of living with it."
However, Eungella not only faces the threat of the mite but also the threat of renewable development proposals, including pumped hydro dams, a wind farm, and 'the world's biggest pumped hydro scheme'.
"If I was to lose my place here that would end that business opportunity and potentially a fair part in this region's safe guarding for bees, for when we get varroa mite," Mr Cannon said.
"They just leave everyone in the dark and dictate to us...For what we can see and the experts we're talking to, there's nothing green or renewable about this. It's just absolute environmental destruction for human consumption...and I'm hell-bent on protecting this place.
"We've looked at engineer reports, hydrology reports, and obviously the environmental side of it, and there's quite a few studies that were conducted in the 1960s and 1990s for dam feasibility and looking at what's under the ground.
"Down at Netherdale (where the lower reservoir will be), the conclusion was it should never be considered for a dam location, and up here, there were reports that there are multiple joints and fractures. Eungella range is susceptible to landslides and washouts."
Mr Cannon, who also serves as Save Eungella president, said there are natural springs along the range which form the start of the Pioneer River, and to the north, the water begins the Burdekin system.
"We're on a water shed here, between two great water catchments...this is the last place you'd want to place a water system of this scale. This isn't renewable green energy, it's an industrial power station they're putting in," he said.
"We've got to be very careful about the labels we're putting on things because it can be very misleading...It's got a 100 year lifespan...That's a hell of a lot of destruction of our environment for a little blink in time for the south east to keep their air-conditioners running.
"We've got people on the edge of suicide up here. They're so passionate and love this place and they've been so alienated and pressured by the government. They feel like they have nowhere else to turn and that this is inevitable."
Save Eungella, a community group that banded together to take a stand against the projects, is demanding the state government and Member for Mackay Julieanne Gilbert turn their gaze away from Eungella and look for areas with "low environmental significance".
"If you want to look at old mine pits where you can pump water, the infrastructure's there. You don't have to drill down under a national park, all the pipe work can be surfaced. You don't have to put transmission lines potentially through a national park," Mr Cannon said.
"This is not the right location. You don't put something of this scale in a location that's the birthplace for two main river systems that both flow out to the Coral Sea and the Great Barrier Reef."
There is a lot on the chopping block for "one of the most environmentally significant places on the globe".
"There's also Eungella Honey, Eungella Spiny Crayfish...a whole raft of endemic endangered animals here are just going to be absolutely destroyed," Mr Cannon said.
"It's a huge sacrifice for one option for energy sustainability for the future. Don't put all your eggs in one basket for a project that's destined to fail.
"We've got an absolute stronghold of platypus here that is thriving...after this project is done it (will become) a critically endangered animal.
"There's not many of this sort of high elevation rain-forests in Queensland so you can't just chuck a platypus in a dam somewhere and expect it to live. They've trialled that and from my knowledge it doesn't work."
Relocation also poses the risk of males fighting if there is more than one in a water system, as well as the risk of death from injury in the pumps or from the shock waves from drills.
"Again we've had to pry for this information, they haven't started to examine where they're going to put all our hundreds of platypus. To create an artificial environment to put them into, it takes years to create that ecology...if they even survive that long and make it to that," Mr Cannon said.
While the community has had one meeting with contractors, Queensland Hydro, there is still ambiguity about who will lose their homes, with questions posed to the young and inexperienced contractors receiving a common "we don't know" response.
"As a community, we've been completely kept in the dark...the silence is deafening," Mr Cannon said.
"Have a community consultation session where we can have a back and forth conversation. Send us an email or put it on your social platforms for the community to know what they're actually doing.
"Tell us what your biological studies are coming back with. If it's not going to stack up, let's pull the pin now and stop wasting everyone's time, money and effort, and look for alternatives.
"There's already enough evidence to say this isn't a suitable location, so where's the next one and what other technologies can we look at to safeguard our energy future without destroying our planet, communities and the reef?"
Many Eungella residents moved to the area to live "in a pristine rain forest".
"The only time we had anything to do with Julieanne was when it was unveiled and they had the first drop in session. She turned up...all she could say was that we're an absolute disgrace and we need this to combat climate change...people were outraged...after being told we're going to lose our place and paradise is going to be destroyed," Mr Cannon said.
"We're not pushing back against renewables whatsoever. We need to make a change...whether you believe in climate change or not, we are making a significant impact on our planet...however there's a lot of options on the table...it's not just one size fits all. Let's not destroy paradise to keep the lights on.
"The technology, it's got merit in the right location.
"Get on the right side of history and join the true conservationists that want to protect our planet and not just follow the money trail and do as you're told...when people join together they're far more powerful than what we're led to believe."
