Cormac Farrell can thank a bright yellow dress drying on the clothesline for his foray into urban beekeeping.
The dress, owned by his partner Lisa, was the target of some swarming bees in the spring of 2013.
While that may have been good news in that swarming meant the bees were reproducing, there was a strict rule in the household - one hive only.
Mr Farrell was working for an engineering firm at the time and convinced his boss to let him keep the new colony of bees on the balcony of their workplace in the middle of Canberra.
"I didn't realise it at the time, but this was a pivotal point that would impact both my beekeeping and my career," Mr Farrell said, in his new book, Urban Beekeeping, The City as a Hive.
The bees stayed as part of the office for years. Pots of honey were even produced as gifts for clients.
"It put the Canberra office on the map a little bit, which was really fantastic," he said.
Then the firm had to move offices and the bees needed a new home.
As luck would have it, the Department of Parliamentary Services was keen to do something a little out of the box, in terms of sustainability.
So, in 2017, Mr Farrell moved the been hives to the gardens of Parliament House.
The bees have remained there ever since. Honey produced by them goes into everything from vodka sold in the Parliament House shop to ice cream made in the kitchens of the house.
Mr Farrell, meanwhile, became the head beekeeper at Parliament House, looking after the native bee and honey bee hives. It's a purely volunteer position, with his day job as a public servant with the federal Environment Department.
Now, his journey has come to his first book, Urban Beekeeping, being published. It was launched at the Museum of Australian Democracy on Friday.
"I'm just excited to have it out there and to talk to people about the book," he said.
Mr Farrell said he wanted the book to be "part instruction manual for urban beekeepers and part manual for city planners, governments and citizens in creating a more sustainable way of life".
"I think we want to think about cities differently," he said.
"What we can do beyond just living here?"
It was even possible to keep a hive on a balcony.
"Bees are perfect because they largely look after themselves," he said.
"And if you're into gardening, if you're into beekeeping, you can run a couple of hives no problem."
And as for the yellow dress?
"The dress survived and is still a beautiful dress," Mr Farrell said.
- Urban Beekeeping: The City as a Hive is published by Exisle Publishing.
