Campylobacter is one of the commonest  causes of foodborne acute diarrhoea in humans in industrialised countries including Australia. In addition to gastroenteritis Campylobacter spp. have also been implicated in various extra-intestinal conditions such as Guillain-Barré syndrome, bacteraemia, myocarditis, hepatitis, meningitis, haemolytic-uraemic syndrome and reactive arthritis.  Currently the rates of C. jejuni infection in NSW are not known as this is not a notifiable disease in this state. Most labs rely on conventional culture based methods for the detection of C. jejuni in faecal specimens. There is an urgent need to improve detection methods to be able to get a clearer idea of infection rates nationally and to enable better implementation of strategies to control campylobacter infections in the community.