Public immunisation sessions

On the day

• For Parents and Carers, please bring your child’s Medicare Card and Child Health Record to the session. 
• Only bring the necessary family members to the appointment.
• Please attend at your designated appointment time and not earlier.
• Please do not attend if you or a family member is unwell, especially with any symptoms of flu or COVID-19, including a fever, chills or sweats, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny nose, Please reschedule your appointment through CIRV.

At the immunisation session

• The immunisation admin will attend to you within 10 minutes of your appointment time and request you to wait until the immunising team is ready.
• Once the immunising team has reviewed the immunisation history, they will call the person to be immunised. For persons under 18 years of age, a single parent or guardian will also be called into the immunisation area.
• The nurses will provide information regarding vaccines, potential side effects, and offer guidance regarding other optional vaccines.
• For young person’s requiring multiple vaccinations, two nurses will simultaneously administer the immunisations to your child two at a time, ensuring a more comfortable experience. The nurses will make every effort to engage and calm your child during the vaccination process. However, if the child is unable or unwilling to remain still, the team may not be able to administer the vaccine due to safety concerns. If suitable, the team may assist you and provide alternative solutions.
• After the vaccination, you will be requested to remain at the venue for 15 minutes for observation.

After immunisation

• If a reaction to a vaccine occurs, or persists for a long time, please contact your GP or nearest hospital.

Important vaccine age limitations for babies

• 6 week immunisations cannot be given even one day early.
• 4 and 6 month immunisations must have an eight week gap between them.

Please be aware that if you present to a session when your child is not at the correct age, we may be unable to immunise your child. 

Influenza, also known as the flu, is a very contagious viral infection of the respiratory tract that can cause severe illness and life-threatening complications, including pneumonia.

Getting the influenza vaccine is currently the most effective method to prevent the flu each year and provide protection against the most common strains of the virus.

Influenza vaccine 2024 is free for eligible people under the National Immunisation Program (NIP) who are at higher risk of complications from influenza:

• People aged 6 months to less than 5 years (can be given at the same time as childhood vaccines)
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 6 months and older
• Pregnant women (can be given at any stage of each pregnancy)
• People aged 65 years and older
• People aged 6 months and older with medical conditions putting them at increased risk of severe influenza and its complications

Persons that are not eligible for the free flu vaccine can receive the flu vaccine for a fee of $31, payable by eftpos at public immunisation sessions. 

More information regarding Influenza vaccine can be found at Department of Health and Better Health Channel - Influenza (Flu) Immunisation website.

Book your flu vaccine here

• Bexsero vaccine is only available for bookings during morning and afternoon immunisation sessions on CIRV. 
• Bexsero can be safely given with other routine vaccines, including live vaccines.
  Children  can also receive Bexsero separately from other routine infant vaccines, with a minimum interval of 3 days from non-live vaccines, to minimise the risk of fever. In this case, we give routinely recommended vaccines first. If administering Bexsero separately from the 12 and 18 month vaccines, an interval of 2 weeks is recommended, as some of these vaccines are live and may cause a delayed fever 7-10 days post vaccination.
• Children under 2 years of age are highly recommended to receive paracetamol with every dose of Bexsero, both before and after administration. Melbourne Vaccine Education Centre recommends children under 4 years of age receive  paracetamol  before and after every dose of Bexsero.
• The 1st dose of paracetamol (15 mg/kg/dose) is recommended within 30 minutes before, or as soon as practicable after receiving the vaccine. This should be followed by 2 more doses of paracetamol given 4-6 hours apart, regardless of whether the child has a fever. 

More information regarding Meningococcal B vaccination can be found on the Department of Health and Better Health Channel website. 

Our team of nurses are highly skilled and can create a catch-up immunisation plan for you or your child.

Please contact Council’s Community Health team prior to booking an immunisation session if:

• Your child has been immunised overseas.
• Your child has missed vaccinations and requires a catch-up schedule

See Missed vaccinations, overseas immunisations and catch-up schedules

Council does not provide travel vaccinations or advice on travel vaccinations. If immunisations are required for travel purposes, please contact your doctor.

Council provides vaccines funded for Victoria, see the Immunisation schedule - Victoria for funded vaccines and eligibility criteria.

Council also provides fee payable vaccinations against Chicken Pox, Meningococcal B, Hepatitis B and Whooping cough (Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis) and Influenza. See cost for fee payable vaccines. Payment must be made via eftpos, as cash is not available at our immunisation sessions.

Council is not able to offer COVID vaccine at this time. To find out where to get a COVID vaccine, please visit the Better Health Channel website.