Since June, a virus that has reshaped wildlife and agriculture across much of the world has been quietly extending its reach across Australia — state by state, seabird by seabird. The discovery of a dead petrel on Moreton Island has made Queensland the fourth Australian state to confirm H5N1, bringing the national tally to eighteen cases and deepening a question that epidemiologists and ecologists are watching closely: whether a disease long held at the continent's edge is now finding a home within it. For now, the virus appears confined to wild birds, and human risk remains low — but the pace