Australia confirms first mainland case of H5N1 bird flu after migratory bird tests positive in Western Australia
The deadly H5N1 avian influenza strain has been detected on the Australian mainland for the first time, with a brown skua found dead in a remote Western Australian national park testing positive, Agriculture Minister Julie Collins confirmed on Saturday.
First mainland detection
A brown skua, a migratory seabird, was found unwell on Sunday 14 June at Cape Le Grand National Park in southern Western Australia. Initial testing at a state laboratory returned a suspected positive for avian influenza, and samples were sent to the CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness for confirmation. On Saturday 20 June, Federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins confirmed the bird had died from H5N1.
A second sick bird, a giant petrel found in the same area, is also suspected of carrying the highly pathogenic strain. No evidence of mass mortality or poultry infection has been detected so far. Australia had been the only continent without a confirmed mainland case of H5N1, though the strain was detected on the remote sub-Antarctic Heard Island in late 2025.
- Brown skua found sick at Cape Le Grand National Park, Western Australia
- Suspected case of H5 bird flu announced; samples sent to CSIRO for confirmation
- Agriculture Minister Julie Collins confirms H5N1 in the brown skua; second bird (giant petrel) also suspected
Government response
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the arrival of H5N1 “concerning” but said the government had spent $113 million preparing for this scenario. “We have prepared for it. This is something that has happened through migratory birds. It’s happened, by definition, around the world, and that is why we’ve been preparing for this,” Albanese said on Saturday.
Collins promised a nationally coordinated response focusing first on assessing how far the disease has spread in wildlife. She reminded the public not to touch sick or dead birds and to report sightings to the emergency animal disease hotline. The country has already tightened biosecurity at farms, tested shore birds, vaccinated vulnerable species, and run response drills over the past two years.
Wildlife and health concerns
This strain of bird flu has caused huge die-offs of birds and sea mammals. My concerns are that if the H5N1 avian flu virus is confirmed, it will pose a huge risk to some of our more endangered shorebirds, some of our coastal raptors, and our precious, unique, endemic and endangered Australian sea lions, whose population is precarious.
Dr Carol Booth of the Invasive Species Council described the detection as “deeply concerning given the devastating impacts the virus is having on wildlife around the world.” She noted that the mass deaths of elephant seals on Heard Island last year were a harbinger of potential catastrophe if the virus reached the mainland.
If it is confirmed to be the H5 bird flu, this will be sobering, but not unexpected given the spread globally. We certainly expected we couldn’t remain H5 free forever, as the only continent currently that is free of the H5 bird flu.
What next
Officials are now tracing the extent of any wildlife infection. Confirmation of the giant petrel’s status could shape the response scale. The government’s own risk assessment, cited by Booth, predicts potentially catastrophic impacts on native birds, while the virus’s ability to infect mammals raises the prospect of severe effects on marine mammals. Australia’s preparedness systems face their first real test on the mainland.
