The Latest Breaking News from Lord Howe Island

Some wild bird populations, like those on Lord Howe Island, are at lower risk from the virus but other populations could face a ‘wildlife massacre’

A weekly supply plane carries online grocery orders to the island’s 450 residents, but a growing number are returning to subsistence farming

One of Australia's most exclusive holiday destinations has been partially closed to visitors as it fights an invasion of myrtle rust spore.

The majority of land on Lord Howe Island has been temporarily closed to all non-essential visitors due to the escalating risk of the highly transferable myrtle rust.

A team of scientists in Australia and the UK discover a previously unknown disease attributed to plastic consumption by Lord Howe Island seabirds, which is creating extensive scar tissue in their stomachs.

Four years ago, there were only 250 Lord Howe Island woodhens left. Now there are more than 1,100 thanks to a rodent control program. It's being hailed as a symbol of what can be achieved for threatened species "if you get the settings right".

A large cockroach, unique to Lord Howe Island, has been rediscovered more than 80 years after it was last seen. The species was thought to have been wiped out by rats on the island and its surprise discovery is being hailed as an environmental win.

Why would we want to put cockroaches back on a beautiful island after their seemingly fortuitous extermination?

In 1887, Australian Museum scientists undertook a pioneering expedition to Lord Howe Island, a tiny patch of land off the east coast of Australia. Among their many discoveries, they recorded “a large Blatta” – a type of cockroach – under a decaying log.