Ukraine receives 'no early warning' as Russian missiles target Kyiv.

Extract from ABC News

• Topic:Unrest, Conflict and War

about 3 hours ago

One killed, eight injured in overnight Russian attack on Kyiv, emergency services say (Reuters)

In short:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says allies gave no early warning of a Russian missile attack on the Kyiv region.

At least six people were killed, including an infant, after a strike in Kharkiv.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has denied intelligence-sharing with Ukraine is suspended as Vladimir Putin proposes a summit with Xi Jinping and Donald Trump to discuss the war.

Ukraine did not receive an early warning from allies about incoming Russian ballistic strikes that targeted energy facilities in the Kyiv region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says, amid the growing public rift between the Trump administration and Ukraine.

Russia launched 16 ballistic missiles at the Kyiv region and over 200 drones across the war-torn country, Mr Zelenskyy said. 

AFP reporters heard air alerts and explosions ringing out in the capital.

One strike in a park in the Kharkiv region killed six people, including three children, while another 15 people were injured.

"Another Russian ballistic missile attack came in several waves overnight, and once again, there was no early warning from our partners," Mr Zelenskyy said on social media.

A Russian strike destroyed a house in the outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. (Reuters)

He added that some vital deliveries from the United States were being delayed.

Last week Kyiv said there had been no warning from the United States of similar strikes, leaving virtually no time for residents to take shelter.  

Mr Zelenskyy also repeated his accusation that US military satellite systems were slowing down Ukrainian drones, hindering their ability to hit Russian targets.

He said frontline units had reported that the Starshield equipment "stops functioning at speeds of 130-160 kilometres (80-100 miles) per hour in various sectors of the front".

President Donald Trump is accusing Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of not wanting to end his country's war with Russia. (AP: Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

'No pause' to intelligence-sharing

Both Mr Trump and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk have denied being responsible for the Starshield speed limits.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied earlier on Monday, local time, that there had been any suspension of intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

As Russia-Ukraine war changes, Zelenskyy could be 'losing a strong partner'

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has taken on a different complexion lately, and it has shone a light on Kyiv's strained relations with the White House.

"There has been no pause," Mr Rubio told reporters in Uzbekistan when asked about Ukraine's claims, calling on Mr Zelenskyy to "focus" on ending the war with Russia.

Mr Trump, who says he has made a deal with Russia to secure fuel exports in exchange for the easing of sanctions, has made renewed attacks on Mr Zelenskyy in recent days over the war.

The US leader wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday that he was making "great progress" in negotiating peace between Russia and Ukraine, but claimed: "Zelenskyy doesn't care, and frankly, with all of the money that Europe is famously giving him … he doesn't want to end this war, and probably never did."

But Mr Zelenskyy hit back at the claims, in a post saying that "Ukraine never wanted this war, and we have welcomed literally EVERY attempt by our partners to bring this war to a dignified end".

Russia-China-US summit on the cards

The diplomatic tensions between Washington and Kyiv come as Russia continues carrying out strikes across Ukraine.

Two women and an infant were killed on Monday in a Russian drone attack on a village in Kharkiv region, Ukraine's interior minister Ivan Vyhivskyi said.

The drone hit a park where families were playing with children, he added on the Telegram app. Mr Vyhivskyi shared a blurred photo showing a child's body in a stroller.

More on Ukraine

Ukrainian scientist still in Russian detention one year on, conference told

Topic:Antarctic Research

At least three killed by Russian drones in Ukraine which cut power to 370,000

Topic:War

Zelenskyy 'done' with US-made energy ceasefire that Moscow ignored

Topic:Unrest, Conflict and War

Sailors missing as two ships set ablaze in Romanian Black Sea

Topic:Marine Incidents

Broader strikes also hit energy facilities in 11 Ukrainian regions through the night, Mr Zelenskyy said.

It came as Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha warned that a proposed meeting between the leaders of Russia, China and the US could only serve to prolong the war.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin had proposed a summit next month with Mr Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to negotiate an end to the war on terms that would favour Moscow.

AFP/Reuters

The dark forces driving discontent across the developed world.

Analysis

By chief business correspondent Ian Verrender

• Topic:Economy

about 1 hours ago

Civil unrest over the cost of living has turned violent in France this month. (Reuters: Abdul Saboor)

Disillusion is rapidly turning to discontent and open conflict.

Over the weekend, demonstrators took to the streets across France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Belgium, battling police, torching public buildings and looting shops.

The scenes have mirrored events on the other side of the Atlantic, as the political chasm dividing America has grown, with outbursts of public anger against authorities gaining momentum.

Across the developed world, including here in Australia, political momentum has shifted from the centre to the fringes in an increasingly bipolar world that, if it continues, ultimately will render any attempt at consensus futile.

Populist leaders, experts at whipping up fury for personal gain, are in the ascendancy despite offering little in the way of solutions.

While the catalysts in each country may differ, the root cause largely is the same: the economy.

The compact — the unwritten agreement — between workers and the democratic state is fraying.

Lower- and middle-income workers feel they're going backwards. And they're not imagining it.

Wages have not kept pace with inflation as asset prices have soared. Property ownership in many Western nations is almost out of reach of ordinary workers while rents have skyrocketed.

That has concentrated wealth in an increasingly smaller cohort of wealthy households.

Lower- and middle-income workers aren't imagining their financial struggles. (Pexels: Mikhail Nilov)

The "cost-of-living crisis" has become a transnational phenomenon.

And as prices continue to surge, central banks have responded in unison by raising interest rates, piling further pressure on those already most affected.

The cost of inequality is beginning to manifest itself.

Why you feel poor

Here's a snapshot of why workers are angry.

If you take inflation into account, Australian incomes are back to where they were in 2011.

Australian wages, adjusted for headline inflation, have been going backwards. (Supplied: Macrobusiness/ABS)

There was the post-pandemic inflation hangover piled on top of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which sent energy prices into orbit, that's now been followed by America's war in Iran.

The combination has not just obliterated income growth. It has sent it into reverse.

It's a story writ large across the Western world.

Just how intractable the problem has become is on full display right here at home.

The opposition and a large posse of economic commentators point to federal government spending. It's firing up inflation, they argue, and driving interest rates higher.

That's not entirely true. For a start, there are huge global forces at work. But let's look at the domestic situation.

Spending alone isn't the problem. It is the imbalance between tax revenue and spending. There's not enough tax to pay for all that spending, and the shortfall, the deficit, must be funded by debt.

There are two levers you can pull here. One is raising taxes, which no-one will ever support. And the other is cutting spending, which no-one will ever support.

From 2013 to the pandemic, Australia, a resource-exporting nation, ran up deficits during the greatest resources boom in history.

The government of the day decided to throw away a resources tax, a decision that has cost the country dearly.

And to this day, we continue to sell our resources, charging a fraction of the taxes other nations apply.

The cost of putting off an economic reckoning is looming

Rising government debt, unaffordable housing and an aging population are intensifying pressure for economic reform.

In the meantime, lobbyists continually agitate for cuts to income and company taxes, even as we stare into the abyss of ongoing deficits.

Their universal fix is to raise the Goods and Services Tax, which, if you hadn't already guessed, hits low- and middle-income earners the hardest.

Remember the three-stage income tax cuts, the ones that really benefited higher-income earners?

Apparently, they were going to be self-funding. They were going to generate so much economic activity that the cuts would increase government revenue.

Instead, they've created a structural imbalance in our federal finances.

And whenever the idea of spending cuts is raised, there is an almighty burst of outrage.

Just ask Joe Hockey. His 2014 federal budget was howled down.

This year's budget, meanwhile, targeted welfare payments to the wealthy, which, given our circumstances, should have been a no-brainer.

The hugely generous discounts to capital gains tax and the loophole created by negative gearing were wound back, along with a tightening of the generous tax arrangements surrounding family trusts.

Five months later, and the outcry against the changes continues.

Tax concessions may not seem like spending, but, in essence, they are. That's because they cost the budget as revenue is foregone while the benefits accrue to a targeted cohort.

Other taxpayers, paying the full rate, end up subsidising the beneficiaries.

And it is wealthier households that overwhelmingly benefit from those concessions.

The Trump legacy: higher interest rates

Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Michele Bullock has confirmed what many of us feared.

Higher interest rates are here to stay.

"I don't know if this particular level is the new normal, but what I do know is that we're not going back down to interest rates of zero or very close to zero, policy rates of that," she said after the RBA rate hike this month.

Inflation is no longer an Australian-only concern. It's rising across the developed world.

The US Federal Reserve has already raised rates once this year and, after hotter-than-expected inflation stats this month, could go again before Christmas.

In the past few weeks, bond markets have pushed interest rates on longer-term US government debt dramatically higher as concerns about US government debt continue to rattle investors.

Tax cuts for the wealthy, under Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill, coupled with huge outlays for the war in Iran, have sent US debt into orbit.

As you can see below, America's debt-to-GDP is now at 126 per cent, far higher than during World War II.

The interest bill on that debt is now the second-biggest expense in the US Budget and outstrips defence spending. With soaring US bond rates, that bill is now becoming ever more expensive.

As a much smaller nation that imports capital for investment, longer-term Australian government debt rates have soared alongside the greenback.

Add in the trillions of dollars earmarked for artificial intelligence investment over the next few years, and the global demand for debt funding is likely to keep interest rates elevated for years.

Higher inflation and higher interest bills eat into worker salaries.

When did the rot set in?

Some point to the global financial crisis (GFC).

Governments and central banks bailed out the culprits while workers were left to fend for themselves.

What followed was mass unemployment and an acceleration of the globalisation trends that sent much of the world's manufacturing industries to China.

Inflation all but disappeared and interest rates, in what now appears to be an aberration, plummeted.

Stock markets boomed and real estate soared, giving a false impression of rapidly rising national wealth across the Western world. The gap between the have-mores and the have-nots grew ever wider but was largely ignored.

But the GFC was merely a flashpoint when the tectonic forces that had been building for years finally snapped.

For decades, the great economic experiment of the 80s appeared a resounding success.

Reagan and Thatcher pushed through financial deregulation and allowed market forces to dominate, liberated debt markets, allowed trade to flow freely, increased wealth and raised living standards across the globe.

There was a dogmatic application of the theory of free markets and globalisation as detractors were denigrated and discarded.

For more than 30 years, it seemed to work, until it all blew up.

But even then, it appears we only paid attention to one side of the Yin and Yang of an economic revolution.

And now the costs are mounting.

Cattle station 'crown jewels' in Gulf and Cape York to become national parks.

Extract from ABC News

By Crispian Yeomans

• ABC Rural

• Topic:National Parks

about 1 hours ago

The Queensland government will turn 90,000 hectares of Westmoreland Station into national park. (Supplied: Gary Cranitch/Queensland Museum)

In short:

Carpentarian grasswrens, palm cockatoos and hundreds of "ecologically significant" wetlands will be protected under a major Queensland land acquisition.

The large cattle stations will become national parks, although some only in part.

What's next?

Councils are waiting to see how the state government will manage the land.

Almost 400,000 hectares of land will be turned into new national parks in Queensland, but the state government is yet to decide how many rangers will manage it.

Three cattle stations, including part of Westmoreland and Cliffdale Station in the Gulf Country and all of Cape York's Kendall River Station, will become protected state-owned land.

The land was purchased under a deal involving the Queensland government, $21 million from the Nature Conservancy, and $3.5 million from the federal government.

A rainbow bee-eater (Merops ornatus) spotted at Cliffdale Station in the Gulf Country. (Supplied: Queensland government)

Nature Conservancy Australia executive Mike Roache said while "only portions" of the land were purchased, those sections were the "jewels in the crown" of its ecosystems.

"You've got the classic Gulf plains, spinifex and wetlands and rivers that are captured in these properties, that are beautiful to witness and now will become national parks for all to enjoy,"

Mr Roache said.

He said some land in Cape York would also become Aboriginal freehold land, while traditional owners would have "opportunities" to manage land in the Gulf.

Cliffdale Station in the Gulf Country has 174 wetlands. (Supplied: Queensland government)

Land 'well-managed' but weeds spreading

The endangered Carpentarian grasswren, the purple-crowned fairywren and grey falcon rely on Gulf habitat, while swamp mahogany, Darwin stringybark, palm cockatoo and the white-bellied sea eagle are found in Cape York.

Burke Shire Mayor Ernie Camp said protecting the "natural asset" was welcome, but he had "some concern" about the loss of ratepayer money as councils would still need to maintain nearby roads.

Westmoreland Station has been acquired as a national park. (Supplied: Gary Cranitch/Qeensland Museum)

"Those roads to the new declared areas as well as the [existing] Lawn Hill National Park are council-controlled roads, so the burden does fall onto councils,"

Cr Camp said.

The shire has an annual rate base of $4 million and a population of 550, but has to manage 550 kilometres of road across an area two-thirds the size of Tasmania.

Cr Camp said the land had also been "well-run" by previous owners but warned that those "natural values" would be rapidly lost without proper management.

He said wet conditions in the Gulf Country had supercharged the spread of rubber vine and prickly acacia since 2023 to "ridiculous" levels.

"The thickness of the prickly acacia in some of the areas had become fully carpeted, so there were no natural or native grasses under the shade cover,"

the mayor said.

Carpentarian grasswrens are losing their spinifex grass habitat to weeds and poor fire management. (Supplied: Clint Hook/Southern Gulf NRM)

Tourism, park rangers on the cards

Neil O'Brien from Gulf Savannah Development said the region could benefit from tourism, but the state government would have to keep parks and roads well-maintained.

Park rangers and traditional owners will manage Kendall River Station once it is officially gazetted as a reserve. (Supplied: Justine Hausheer/The Nature Conservancy)

He pointed to the success of the Hell's Gate Roadhouse along the Savannah Way as a "great opportunity" to become a "gateway" into the region.

"It's as simple as sealing the road, as simple as putting in concrete causeways, to break the burden that will be borne by the Burke Shire Council,"

Mr O'Brien said.

What's next for this outback cattle station turned national park?

An anonymous $21 million donation has helped with the purchase of the 352,589-hectare Vergemont Station near Longreach to create a 1.5 million-hectare "protected corridor" in outback Queensland.

A spokesperson for Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell said Queensland Parks and Wildlife would manage most of the land, but staff numbers were "not yet available".

"Planning for the future national parks is underway, including consideration of visitor access and infrastructure, land-management requirements and the resources needed to support their long-term management," she said.

The Queensland government purchased three cattle stations for national parks in 2024 but councils are waiting to know how many staff will be allocated to manage them.

Kendall River Station in Cape York is home to eucalyptus forests and roaring rivers. (Supplied: Justine Hausheer / The Nature Conservancy)

Celebrating a decade of WA's Wheatbelt conservation on the silver screen.

Extract from ABC News

Feel good

• By Chloe Henville

• ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt

• Topic:Conservation

about 19 hours ago

Ten of WA's threatened species feature in the short film. (Supplied: Australian Wildlife Conservancy)

In short:

A wildlife documentary filmed in WA's Wheatbelt has featured at an international film festival.

The film by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) follows a decade-long project to rehabilitate 10 threatened species at a predator-free sanctuary.

What's next:

The AWC will introduce some of the species outside of the predator-free fence.

Ten years of late-night stake-outs and helping threatened species thrive has been captured on film and exhibited on an international stage.

Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) photographer and videographer Brad Leue has recorded hundreds of hours of footage of native wildlife at the Mt Gibson Wildlife Sanctuary, 360 kilometres north-east of Perth in Western Australia.

The resulting documentary, Back to the Bush, was selected to be part of the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival.

Footage spanning a decade went into the 21-minute film. (Supplied: Australian Wildlife Conservancy)

The documentary captures the 10-year effort to bring 10 species back from the brink of extinction, by establishing a predator-free fence.

Mr Leue said it was incredible to share Australia's biggest reintroduction project to a global audience.

"From a storytelling perspective, it's pretty special in itself,"

he said.

Lots of the released animals, like quolls, build burrows for shelter. (Supplied: Brad Leue/Australian Wildlife Conservancy )

Mr Leue said the burrowing animals were "ecosystem engineers" and transformed the landscape over the decade.

"It looks a little bit like a minefield in the sense that there's just these pits and burrows everywhere," he said.

"It's a taste of Australia before feral predators kind of started to be an issue for all our native wildlife.

"The country just looks good, it just looks like it's thriving."

Mr Leue says the animals have helped the land thrive. (Supplied: Wayne Lawler/Australian Wildlife Conservancy)

Filming hazards

Mr Leue said recording the often small, nocturnal animals proved challenging.

He said he used unmanned video camera traps and went on night time stake-outs to try and capture the animals natural behaviours.

"You do really have to be quite creative, almost thinking like the animal to work out how to get footage of some of these more cryptic species," Mr Leue said.

Mr Leue says he has to get creative to capture the small critters. (Supplied: Andy Howe/Australian Wildlife Conservancy)

"As somebody who's really into their wildlife and gets energised by seeing wildlife, Mt Gibson is paradise," he said.

He said he received a 'few nice little bumps' from animals leaping out of their cages when released by the AWC.

Endangered woylies are released in WA's Wheatbelt (Supplied: Australian Wildlife Conservancy)

Mr Leue said woylies often have "springs for legs".

"They'll just kind of launch one to two meters in the air off into the bush," he said.

Work 'never stops'

AWC senior wildlife ecologist Bryony Palmer, who was involved from the beginning of the reintroduction effort, said it was surreal to see its long-term impact.

"When you're working on it day-to-day, you can sort of lose sight of the bigger picture a little bit," she said.

"It's so rewarding to see these really tangible conservation benefits for all of these different species."

Dr Palmer said the project was highly successful.

"For those species, there's eight of the 10 present on the sanctuary," she said.

"Most of them have populations that are really thriving now."

AWC ecologists slowly released the animals over the past decade. (Supplied: Brad Leue/Australian Wildlife Conservancy)

Like Mr Leue, Dr Palmer said the surrounding landscape changed dramatically.

"You see signs of them everywhere, all their little diggings and footprints and things," she said.

"It's really a feeling of the the bush and the landscape going back to the way it should be."

Dr Palmer said the next step was to try and establish some of the species outside of the predator-free boundary.

"The work never stops," she said.

Elephant calves first in Australia to be vaccinated against deadly virus.

Extract from ABC News

By science reporter Jacinta Bowler

• ABC Science

• Topic:Animals

about 4 hours ago

Sitting in her office, surrounded by elephant pictures, zookeeper Lucy Truelson's voice cracks when she talks about Man Jai.

She watched the Asian elephant's birth in 2013 to mum Kulab. She was there when he had an operation to remove his tusks — broken during rough play — in 2021.

And she was with the cheeky nine-year-old who loved to eat dates when he got unexpectedly sick with elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV).

EEHV haemorrhagic disease, which has no cure, usually affects Asian elephants younger than Man Jai.

"The team worked day and night with him, and he was super brave," she says.

"We were all extremely devastated when we lost the fight."

It's been three years since Man Jai died.

But Ms Truelson hopes a new vaccine trial happening on the day I visit Werribee Open Range Zoo can prevent the same fate for the other young elephants at the zoo, and around the world.

Zoos Victoria elephant zookeeper Lucy Truelson. (ABC News: Matt Holmes)

With nearly 30 years in the job, Ms Truelson's seen plenty of life and death.

"Any elephant death is devastating. They're all so precious, each individual," she says.

But EEHV haemorrhagic disease can progress rapidly, with massive internal bleeding leading to death within just 24 hours.

"This virus is really aggressive — it's quite a painful and a nasty death."

In the past 25 years, there have been more than 90 deadly cases of the virus in elephant calves under human care. The virus is one of the largest killers of young Asian elephants in zoos around the world.

And all the new calves at Werribee, with their own personalities and favourite snacks, are at risk.

Asian elephant calf Man Jai (right) died of EEHV when he was nine. (Supplied: Jo Howell/Melbourne Zoo)

A common, but deadly disease

Tabitha Hoornweg, a veterinary scientist at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, has been researching how EEHV works and how to stop it since 2019.

Her team is one of three groups around the world, along with teams in the US and the UK, that are developing and trialling vaccines.

"All elephants have this virus or get this virus somewhere during their lives," she says.

"However, for some younger elephants, when they first get in contact with this virus, they get very, very ill."

This is well documented in elephants under human care, but there is also evidence it occurs in the wild.

"It's been estimated that at least 100 to 150 wild calves have also died from this disease," Dr Hoornweg says.

Tabitha Hoornweg is leading the EEHV vaccination trial. (Supplied: Bas Niemans)

The vaccine developed by Dr Hoornweg's team, which trains the elephant's immune system to recognise the virus, was tested on six older elephants in Dutch zoos about three years ago.

While the elephants didn't have any dangerous side effects, the research only showed the vaccine was safe.

"Now we also want to know whether it's effective to protect the young ones," Dr Hoornweg says.

So far, 11 elephant calves in Europe have received this vaccine.

Three young elephants from Werribee Zoo are the first from Australia to join a vaccine trial.

An elephant calf and mum at Werribee Open Range Zoo. (Supplied: Zoos Victoria)

Since Man Jai died, elephants at the zoo have undergone weekly PCR and blood tests for EEHV so zookeepers can immediately detect if one of the animals is ill.

"Not all elephants that have participated in Europe are monitored in the same way," Dr Hoornweg says.

Copping a faceful of 'trunk wash'

Taking a PCR test for elephants isn't as simple as with humans where you shove a swab up a nose.

Werribee keepers have to teach an elephant how to work with them.

Ms Truelson says they take it in stages with plenty of "behaviour reinforcers", aka fruit treats.

The calves are given 2 kilograms of fruit and vegetables on the vaccination day. (ABC Radio National: Jade Tully)

The first step is to insert a large syringe full of saline into one trunk nostril.

The elephants are trained to then immediately raise their trunk up and let it all drain down for 20 seconds to get all "that beautiful goodness" in there.

"Trunk wash", saline mixed with dirt and whatever else the elephant has been up to that day, is then blown into a plastic bag and tested for a variety of viruses including EEHV.

A bag full of elephant "trunk wash". (ABC Radio National: Jade Tully)

"[When they're first learning] it's very cute. They might get saline in, and they want to blow it out really quick because they know that's the next step, and they're excited," Ms Truelson says.

That means zookeepers also occasionally cop a faceful of trunk wash, she says.

But it's all part of the learning process and building trust between elephant and keeper.

Preparing to vaccinate an elephant

The experimental vaccine is administered to elephant calves via a syringe. (Supplied: Zoo's Victoria)

In the barn where the calves will be vaccinated there's an unmistakeable waft of farm in the air.

"It's a beautiful blend isn't it?" Werribee Zoo veterinarian Natalie Rourke says.

"Smells like horses and hay and poo … it's good for the soul."

Dr Rourke is one of two veterinarians doing the vaccinating, but she's mostly here to listen to the keepers.

"They train me as much as they train the calves … and they often have to retrain me, so I very much appreciate the guidance."

The nine zookeepers follow a well-practised routine.

Zookeepers gather around to divvy up jobs of the day. (ABC Science: Jacinta Bowler)

Tiny magnets tell each person what their job is, there's a check in for how they're feeling, and there's even a few jokes.

But behind the laughs, there's a bit of nervousness as they get ready to vaccinate the three young calves with the experimental jab.

Adult elephants are easily heavier than 2,000 kilograms, and even the calves are about 1,400kg. Mistakes can be deadly.

Dancing with elephants

The keepers lead the first pair of elephants — mother Mali and calf Roi-Yim — from their sleeping area to metal enclosures in the barn.

They're kept separate but within view of each other to keep them calm.

Werribee staff put on their protective equipment before the elephant vaccination process. (ABC Radio National: Jade Tully)

One keeper has treats and a whistle to reinforce positive behaviour as Roi-Yim leans his 1 tonne frame against the enclosure.

The elephants are trained similar to the way a dog might be trained at home.

"It's all on their terms," Ms Truelson explains.

"You'll see that they are so enthusiastic, these calves. They want to learn, they're curious."

The calves have a special training enclosure with a soft barrier. (ABC Radio National: Jade Tully)

Roi-Yim seems content to get treats in exchange for keeping his back leg available to another keeper, who works with Dr Rourke to prep his skin for the jab.

After his thigh is washed and scrubbed, and everything is ready, Dr Rourke takes a syringe and plunges it through the calf's hide.

It seems like he's barely noticed, happily using his trunk to grab more snacks from the keepers.

"He's not moved a muscle from that position," Ms Truelson says.

"He's just concentrating on the yummy food that he's getting to eat."

An elephant calf has his mouth and tusks checked by a vet. (ABC Radio National: Jade Tully)

Then, as quickly as it began, Roi-Yim and his mum are out onto the savanna for the day, and the team is onto the next mother-and-calf pair.

Seeing the next generation of elephants have a shot at safety from EEHV haemorrhagic disease three years after the death of Man Jai is a special moment for Ms Truelson.

"What Man Jai did for us is really solidify our commitment to fighting this disease … this vaccine trial is one of those ways [we can do that]," she says.

"It's his legacy."

A young elephant splashes about at the Werribee zoo. (Supplied: Zoos Victoria)