I'm not familiar with your conditions. Could it be that you have dry/hot conditions which could cause the flowers to abort? Fava beans prefer cool and damp conditions. I've seen them produce without the "damp" part. But they don't tolerate much heat.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Pinching the growing top of the bread beans when they have developed 5-6 layers of flowers does help them set pods but in general, they don't really start to pod before mid-August - early September no matter when they are sown.

Solanum- thankyou! I was really hoping for a response from another Australian. I'll give them another month or so and see if they set pods, then, before I decide I've gotten it all wrong and it's time to compost them.

Have you ever grown broad beans in Queensland? What's your success been like?

I grow them every year and they usually do quite well. But we live in SE Qld, in the mountains where it is always cooler than in Brisbane.

The photos show healthy looking plants. They do not get bushy really as they put up a few stems stems and don't branch. The black bits look normal but then you would expect an embryonic bean to appear from the shrivelled bits. My vegetable book suggests dryness and spasmodic watering as reasons for blossom drop in beans. Heat might also be aproblem or possibly lack of bees.