Six new H5N1 cases suspected in Victoria as bird flu spreads across Australia

A virus older than any border is moving along Australia's southern coastline, carried by birds that follow ancient migration routes indifferent to human concern. Six new suspected H5N1 cases in Victoria's south-west — five crested terns in Portland and Nelson Bay, one more in Portland the day prior — mark the latest waypoints in a journey that began with a single brown skua near Esperance in June. What has shifted this week is not merely geography but kind: authorities have confirmed, for the first time, that birds in South Australia are passing the virus to one another locally, without any ov