MEDIA RELEASE
25 June 2026
With H5 Bird Flu now confirmed in Australia, the Murray-Darling Conservation Alliance (MDCA) is calling for an emergency response and significant investment to strengthen the resilience and health of critical wetland bird habitat across the Murray-Darling Basin.
The more options for birds to spread out, the better chance we have of preserving pockets of healthy, resilient wild bird populations.
Quotes attributed to Craig Wilkins, Co-National Director of the Murray Darling Conservation Alliance:
"The already vulnerable Murray-Darling Basin is set to be the epicentre for bird flu impact due to its central role as the feeding and breeding home of so many vulnerable migratory bird species.
"H5 Bird Flu is known to hit migratory wetland birds particularly hard. That means some of Australia’s best loved birds like pelicans, swans, terns and herons are directly in the cross-hairs.
"Without emergency coordinated action to give these birds the best possible chance of survival, the impact could be catastrophic to bird populations right across the Murray-Darling."
The MDCA is calling for:
1. Urgent action across the Murray-Darling Basin to improve the resilience and health of bird feeding and breeding sites by:
- Strengthening viable water breeding events (e.g. by delivering prolonged environmental flow events to struggling wetlands to extend breeding seasons)
- Enhancing habitat protection and restoration (e.g. by recovering environmental water, reducing barriers to deliver water to wetlands, expediting purchase and protection of wetlands)
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Removing all avoidable threats (e.g. by cancelling future duck hunting seasons in Victoria and SA, halting any habitat destruction)
2. Federal Government backing for Birdlife Australia’s call for a rapid and significant increase in a national wildlife resilience investment of $200 million over 2 years.
"While we are grateful that the federal and state governments have been preparing for this event, much more needs to be done to give our much loved waterbirds the best possible chance of survival," Wilkins says.
"As H5 bird flu spreads rapidly through close contact between infected animals, increasing the availability of wetland breeding sites and habitats is a vital resilience and bounce-back strategy.
"With only around 3% of wetlands across the Murray Darling Basin currently receiving the water they need, rapidly increasing water delivery to more wetlands will lessen the chance of catastrophic spread through clustering outbreaks by providing alternative breeding and feeding sites.
"The more options for birds to spread out, the better chance we have of preserving pockets of healthy, resilient wild bird populations."
Yesterday, the Murray Darling Basin Authority released its What We Heard report as part of the 10-year review of the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
"This potentially devastating bird flu outbreak starkly reinforces why so many experts and people across the Basin have called for the next Basin Plan to prioritise increasing the number and variety of healthy wetlands across the Basin.
"That means delivering more water to wetlands more often. The alternative is a catastrophic loss of our much-loved waterbirds," Wilkins said.
ENDS
Media contact: Ellie Chamberlain
[email protected] (02) 9516 0135
Spokespeople available on request.
Note: NSW Primary Industries have stood up a call line to respond to any claims and questions. You can call the 7-day, 24-hour Emergency Animal Disease (EAD) Hotline on 1800 675 888.