Exercise Waterhole

Exercise Waterhole was a series of workshops and exercises held in 2023. It tested and evaluated how well-prepared Australia’s animal health laboratory network was to respond to a large-scale emergency animal disease (EAD) outbreak.

The simulated scenario involved an outbreak of lumpy skin disease (LSD) affecting cattle in the Northern Territory and Far North Queensland followed by a concurrent outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in the southern states.

The objectives of the exercise were to:

practice the application and assess the potential impact of regulations and legislation relevant to animal health laboratory services during an EAD incursion across Australia
confirm that Australia has sufficient laboratory capacity and capability to manage the demands of multiple concurrent and high-impact EADs
assess the effectiveness of communication and information management arrangements within and between Australian animal health laboratories
identify resource and logistical constraints that may impact on Australia’s animal health laboratories, when responding to multiple concurrent and high-impact EADs.

The exercise included three workshops and concluded with a 3-day functional exercise in early November 2023.

Exercise Waterhole Report

The exercise brought together state and territory government animal health laboratories, CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness and the department to test Australia’s national laboratory surge capacity.

During Exercise Waterhole, we identified several key findings and 18 recommendations. These recommendations aim to strengthen the animal health laboratory network’s ability to respond to EADs and other biosecurity threats.

The following report gives an overview of all stages of Exercise Waterhole, including background, methodology, management, key findings and recommendations.