Overview
On 21 June 2024, Commonwealth, state, and territory Environment Ministers convened an emergency virtual meeting to coordinate a national response to the confirmed detection of H5 avian influenza in wild native birds in south-western Australia. The meeting was joined by the President of the Australian Local Government Association and was led by the Federal Environment Minister alongside the Australian Chief Veterinary Officer, the Threatened Species Commissioner, and the Western Australian Minister for the Environment. Two species were confirmed positive: a skua and a giant petrel. These are migratory seabirds with wide-ranging movement patterns, which adds complexity to containment and monitoring efforts.
Ministers formally acknowledged that the arrival of a highly infectious H5 strain represents an immediate and serious threat to Australia’s native wildlife, biodiversity, and marine ecosystems. The primary biosecurity response is being coordinated by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry under established national frameworks, but environment ministers agreed to run a parallel ecological track: scaling up localised wildlife monitoring, deploying targeted conservation measures to bolster the resilience of at-risk native species, and coordinating cross-jurisdictional communications. The public and all field practitioners have been directed to follow the “Avoid, Record, Report” protocol and to contact the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888 for any suspected cases.
For environmental professionals, developers, local councils, and their legal advisors, this development is not confined to the agricultural biosecurity space. It introduces direct operational obligations for ecological fieldwork, project-level environmental assessment, biodiversity offset management, and long-term site stewardship across coastal, wetland, and avian-dense landscapes throughout Australia. The national emergency response communique signals that regulatory scrutiny of environmental assessments in affected habitat types will intensify in the near term.
Key details of the H5 avian influenza detection and national response
The confirmed detections involve H5 avian influenza, a highly pathogenic strain consistent with the H5N1 clade that has driven significant wild bird mortality across Europe, the Americas, and parts of Asia over the past several years. The two confirmed cases involved a skua and a giant petrel, both detected in south-western Australia. Both species are pelagic seabirds that undertake long-distance migratory movements, meaning the point of initial introduction to Australia is likely far removed from the detection location, and ongoing spread via migratory flyways is a credible risk.
The national response framework being activated draws on the Biosecurity Act 2015 (Cth) and established national biosecurity emergency response protocols, with DAFF as the lead agency. The environment ministers’ communique signals that the ecological protection arm of the response will operate in parallel, with specific focus on Matters of National Environmental Significance under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act). Australia supports numerous listed threatened and migratory bird species that congregate in coastal and wetland environments, and these populations represent the primary ecological concern. The Threatened Species Commissioner’s involvement in the emergency meeting highlights that the framing extends well beyond agricultural livestock protection.
The agreed actions from the emergency ministerial meeting include: coordinating cross-jurisdictional communications between environment agencies; scaling up localised ecological monitoring in areas proximate to confirmed detections and known high-risk habitat; and deploying targeted conservation measures to build population resilience in at-risk species. These are not merely advisory. For environmental practitioners, the activation of this response has direct bearing on how field programmes are designed and how environmental assessments characterise risk. The “Avoid, Record, Report” directive applies to all persons operating in affected environments, including consultants conducting flora and fauna surveys, soil sampling, groundwater monitoring, or any other field-based investigation in coastal, estuarine, or wetland settings.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza has caused mass mortality events in seabird colonies internationally, with some colonies in the North Atlantic and South America recording losses of 30 to 70 per cent of breeding adults in a single season. Australia’s seabird populations, many of which have limited geographic ranges and low reproductive rates, would be acutely vulnerable to similar mortality events. The combination of threatened species status for many of these birds and the now-confirmed presence of H5 avian influenza in Australian wild birds means that ecological risk characterisation in environmental assessments can no longer treat this threat as theoretical.
Australian context: EPBC Act obligations, state frameworks, and fieldwork compliance
Under the EPBC Act 1999, proposed actions that are likely to have a significant impact on a listed threatened species, a listed migratory species, or a declared Ramsar wetland require referral to the Commonwealth Environment Minister. The confirmed presence of H5 avian influenza in native wild birds raises the threshold of what constitutes a “likely significant impact” for projects in proximity to coastal, estuarine, and wetland environments. Species Impact Statements and Environmental Impact Statements prepared for such projects will now need to address this active disease pressure as a cumulative threat. Assessors cannot reasonably characterise the ecological baseline without acknowledging that several listed migratory and seabird species face heightened cumulative risks.
References and related sources
- Primary source: minister.dcceew.gov.au
- theguardian.com
- EPBC Act
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This is an iEnvi Machete news summary. Prepared by iEnvi to summarise the source article for contaminated land, groundwater, remediation, approvals and site risk professionals.
Published: 23 Jun 2026
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