The Latest Breaking News from Dugald Saunders

Devastated apiarists are demanding to know how they will be compensated as millions of bees are killed in NSW. Meanwhile, Queensland has become the latest state to impose border restrictions amid the varroa mite outbreak.

A new eradication zone has been established in NSW as hundreds of beehives are destroyed in the battle to contain an outbreak of the deadly varroa mite.

As more NSW apiarists prepare to have their bees euthanased and hives burnt, authorities work on a plan to release a chemical "in certain parts of those eradication zones" to target feral bees.

Properties with varroa mite have been discovered on the Mid North Coast, and at Newcastle and Seaham, as the destruction of beehives gets underway.

Thousands of bees to be euthanised in Newcastle.

UPDATED: Newcastle at centre of Australian bee industry crisis

Beekeepers within 50 kilometres of the port are being told not to move or tamper with their hives as a pest that saw hived bees in the US drop by about 30 per cent and NZ native bees by 90 per cent arrives.

The NSW government will commit a further $180 million to the management of marine estates, continuing on its ten-year strategy to invest in the coast.

"QX has killed three crops of oysters for some - that means they'll have no income for three years."