On Christmas Island, where some of the world's most irreplaceable seabirds breed on a single patch of land, conservation managers are not waiting for disaster to arrive — they are building toward it. Parks Australia is upgrading a seabird rehabilitation facility to meet the anticipated arrival of H5 avian influenza, a virus already present in Australia and moving steadily through the region. The work reflects a hard-won understanding that isolation is no longer a shield, and that the time to prepare for a crisis is before it lands.