The Latest Breaking News from Lord Howe Island

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

The Great Barrier Reef is world famous – it’s the largest coral reef system in the world and home to tens of thousands of species. No wonder it is World Heritage listed.

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.

Peak tourist season is underway on the island 600km off the coast of NSW, but essential supplies are depleting after the rodent sighting stopped the ship from delivering its usual goods.