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title: "Beached giant petrels confirm Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza has reached the Australian mainland"
---

# Beached giant petrels confirm Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza has reached the Australian mainland

![HPAI poster Australia](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/HPAI_poster_Australia.jpg)

 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has reached the Australian mainland.  At least four giant petrels *Macronectes* spp. and a Brown or Subantarctic Skua *Catharacta antarctica* found dead on Australian beaches in Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales in late June/early July 2026 have tested positive for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.  These are the first cases of the highly infectious disease being recorded on the Australian mainland – and is leading to great concern in Australia (and in New Zealand), as reflected by the large amount of growing media coverage.

 *![HPAI Northern Giant Petrel Esperance June 2026 2](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/HPAI_Northern_Giant_Petrel_Esperance_June_2026_2.avif)  
One of the first giant petrels tested positive for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza on the Australian mainland, Wylie Bay beach, Western Australia, 18 June 2026.  Photograph by Lori-Ann Shibish/Esperance Wildlife Hospital and Sanctuary (*[*click here*](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/22/h5n1-bird-flu-australia-wild-birds-wa-poultry-farms-locked-down)*)*

 Cases of HPAI have been recorded from nearly all the seabird islands in the South Atlantic and southern Indian Oceans, including Australia’s Heard Island, as has been [reported regularly](https://acap.aq/search?q=avian+influenza&Search=&w1=before&d1=&w2=before&d2=) by *ACAP Latest News*.  The disease has not yet been reported from sub-Antarctic islands in the southern Pacific – Australia’s Macquarie, and the five island groups south of New Zealand – or on the New Zealand mainland.

 *![HPAI Southern Giant Petrel Port Elliott Australia June 2026](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/HPAI_Southern_Giant_Petrel_Port_Elliott_Australia_June_2026.avif)  
A Southern Giant Petrel*M. giganteus*diagnosed with HPAI, Knights Beach, Port Elliott, South Australia, 14 June 2026, photograph from Wildlife Welfare Organisation ([click here](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/24/bird-flu-case-confirmed-south-australia-western-australia-suspected))*

 [**Latest:**](https://www.agriculture.gov.au/campaigns/birdflu)  “As of 3pm AEST, 10 July 2026, Australia has 12 confirmed (or presumed) detections of H5 bird flu in wild [sea]birds.  There are six confirmed in Western Australia (WA), five in South Australia (SA) and one in New South Wales (NSW)”.

 This is a developing story.  *ALN* will continue to report on the seemingly inevitable spread of HPAI around the Southern Ocean.

 For a still serious account of the situation in Australia with the arrival of HPAI view the [First Dog on the Moon's cartoon](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2026/jul/06/bird-flu-seriously-can-somebody-tell-this-virus-its-really-not-a-good-time) of 06 July 2026.

 *John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 10 July 2026*