{"id":854300,"date":"2026-08-13T23:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/854300\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T23:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:16:15","slug":"bird-flu-detection-at-narooma-sparks-fear-for-upcoming-tourist-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/854300\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird flu detection at Narooma sparks fear for upcoming tourist season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Businesses on the NSW south coast are worried that tourism could be impacted following the first local detection of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.<\/p>\n

A sample from a greater crested tern that was found dead on Bar Beach in Narooma was confirmed to have tested positive on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The coastal town’s economy relies on tourism in the spring and summer months, including boat tours out to the neighbouring Barunguba Montague Island, nine kilometres offshore.<\/p>\n

The island is a national park reserve where over 90 species of birds nest during spring, ranging from little penguins to greater crested terns and endangered species such as Gould’s petrels.<\/p>\n

When open, people can easily visit, stay overnight and swim with Australian and New Zealand fur seals and long-nosed seals that live on the island \u2014 species that have previously been vulnerable to avian influenza outbreaks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Lady<\/p>\n

Sally Bouckley owns a tourism company in the middle of Narooma. (ABC News: Mikayla McGuirk-Scolaro)<\/p>\n

Narooma tour operator Sally Bouckley said if bird flu spreads to the island, there could be a “massive” impact on the local economy.<\/p>\n

“It’s the number one tourism experience in Narooma,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We rely heavily on tourism. Hospitality in Narooma is 70 per cent reliant on visitors.”<\/p>\n

NSW deputy chief veterinary officer Rhys Powell said the Narooma detection was “a little bit concerning” given the proximity to Barunguba Montague Island.<\/p>\n

“We’re undertaking surveillance to try and get some more information around what the actual risk is rather than making a knee-jerk response just because we found one sick bird,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Seal<\/p>\n

Australian fur seals are also at risk of H5N1 infection. (ABC News: Jacinta Counihan)<\/p>\n

Island a ‘jewel in the crown’<\/p>\n

A NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy and Environment (DCCEEW) spokesperson said Barunguba Montague Island was one of 34 priority sites being monitored for H5N1 across the state.<\/p>\n

Daily in-person and drone surveillance of the island was in place during the peak migratory bird and nesting season, along with biosecurity measures.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nicolas Carlisle says a bird flu detection on Barunguba Montague Island is likely as birds migrate there to roost. (ABC News: Toby Hemmings)<\/p>\n

A seabird ecologist with the Australasian Seabird Group, Nicholas Carlisle, said the island’s flourishing birdlife has been a remediation success story.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got new species that are now breeding there in 2026 that weren’t there 20 years ago,” Mr Carlisle said.<\/p>\n

“Barunguba Montague is one of the jewels in the crown of the national parks estate.”\"a<\/p>\n

Barunguba Montague Island has been a remediation success story, attracting more birdlife than ever in recent years. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Mr Carlisle said the coming influx of migratory bird populations looking to nest on the island in September meant there was an increased chance of bird flu making its way there.<\/p>\n

“If H5N1 is detected on Barunguba Montague Island, I’d be really surprised if any tours go on,” he said.<\/p>\n

Dr Powell said that if a risk such as sustained transmission on the mainland was identified, a decision could be made to restrict public access through biosecurity orders.<\/p>\n

More communication with the public<\/p>\n

Across Bar Beach, signs have been put up informing the public to keep their distance from any sick or dead birds.<\/p>\n

For Eurobodalla Shire Mayor Mathew Hatcher, the detection was “always a when, not an if.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Biosecurity warning signs have been installed at Bar Beach in Narooma. (ABC News: Mikayla McGuirk-Scolaro)<\/p>\n

“You always want government to be out in front on these types of things, but at the same time by seeing signage go up I’m sure we’re going to see people being scared by it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The worst part of this could be we start seeing a lot of our native animals being affected, that could then in turn be washing up on our beaches.<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t make you want to jump in your car and come down here for the weekend.”<\/p>\n

A DCCEEW spokesperson said they had been communicating with tourist operators, with a response plan set to be published in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\"Seal<\/p>\n

The colony of Australian and New Zealand fur seals at Narooma are a tourist favourite. (ABC News: Jacinta Counihan)<\/p>\n

But Ms Bouckley said greater communication with the public was needed for reassurance.<\/p>\n

“This is now a time for the authorities to be incredibly visible and do what they can to educate the community,” she said.<\/p>\n

“This is a strong community and we will do everything we can to help, but we just need to know how.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Businesses on the NSW south coast are worried that tourism could be impacted following the first local detection…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,64009,424536,1845,81439,137,83435,5702,424535,127735,424537],"class_list":["post-854300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-avian-influenza","tag-barunguba","tag-bird-flu","tag-h5n1","tag-health","tag-montague-island","tag-native-wildlife","tag-petrels","tag-seals","tag-swimming-with-seals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}