New and emerging viral infections impose a significant burden on human health and national economies. The majority of human emerging infectious diseases are of zoonotic origin, with approximately three quarters arising from wildlife and bats being over represented as the reservoir species. Bats are suspected to be the natural reservoir hosts for a number of new and emerging zoonotic viruses including Nipah virus, Hendra virus, SARS coronavirus and Ebola virus. Internationally, bats are increasing being recognized as important hosts of emerging viruses, with many groups attempting to isolate bat viruses, with limited success. Over recent years, in an attempt to improve the success rate for virus isolation, we have developed primary cell culture lines from numerous different species of bats. The use of these bat cell lines, in combination with improved sampling techniques, has lead to recent isolation of a number of novel bat viruses from urine samples. The most interesting of these is Cedar virus, a novel henipavirus from Australian bats, which although shares many similarities with Hendra virus is attenuated in ferrets. The zoonotic potential of these new bat viruses is unknown. Continued investigation of viruses in bats in Australia and globally is critical for an increased understanding of viruses/hosts interactions and, most importantly, to provide insight into the key factors involved in virus emergence and pandemic potential.