Australia news live: charges laid after alleged replica gun scare in Sydney entertainment spot

Ecologist Lana Austin, from conservation group Earthcare St Kilda, said bird flu was likely to arrive at a little penguin colony in Melbourne’s bayside area, which is home to about 1,400 of the birds.

Speaking to ABC Radio Melbourne on Tuesday, Austin said she was “pretty worried because I don’t want to lose one bird”, and that efforts to protect the colony would require “a whole ecosystem response”. She said:

double quotation mark We need to be concerned at St Kilda, not just for penguins, but for all the other wildlife that hang out in Port Phillip Bay generally.

So, we have dolphins, seals, rakali, which is a native water rat. It’s very likely that they will also be affected.

Austin said it was unclear how bad the impact of the virus would be on the colony, due to a lack of data for little penguins, and that authorities had “probably missed the boat” on vaccination efforts.

double quotation mark Arthur Rylah [Institute] did a great risk assessment early last year where they looked into vaccination possibility … It did have some good effects and birds had some resilience and immunity to the disease. However, it had to be introduced before bird flu arrived.

We have missed the vaccination boat and it’s more just about managing it once it arrives.