Health Department data shows a total of 340 measles cases were recorded in Australia last year, the highest number since 1998. The rate of measles cases also peaked in 2014, with about 15 cases for every million people in Australia.

And while numbers are a fraction of what they were in the 1990s, the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System figures show there were just 10 cases in 2005, the best year on record.

Measles is a highly infectious disease that can cause serious illness including inflammation of the brain, particularly in very young children and adults.

Robert Booy​, of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, said many of 2014's cases were from people who had been infected overseas returning to Australia.

"When they come back home into their local communities they tend to spread measles to a second or sometimes a third person," said Professor Booy, the centre's head of clinical research.

A spokeswoman for the federal Health Department said 140 cases of measles were imported last year, which had led to a further 115 infections.

"These cases were mainly associated with outbreaks occurring in the Philippines and Indonesia at the time," she said.

Professor Booy said the disease did not tend to spread beyond three people in such cases because more than 90 per cent of Australia's population was vaccinated, granting "herd immunity" against measles.

But he said there were pockets of lower immunity, such as areas of Sydney with unprotected Pacific Islander populations or suburbs with large numbers of "alternative medicine" devotees in which children were not being vaccinated.

Last year there were 62 cases of measles in children under the age of five, the highest number since 1999.

Professor of Infectious diseases at Austin Health and the University of Melbourne Lindsay Grayson said the surge in cases last year reflected patchy vaccination rates among children.

"There is absolutely no excuse. All children should be vaccinated for measles." he said. "Any parent that does not get their child vaccinated for measles is brain dead."

In the early '90s there were up to 4500 measles cases each year but numbers steadily dropped off in the following decade, reaching a low of just 10 cases nationwide in 2005.

Cases have been trending upward since then, but in real and proportional terms the figures are still a fraction of what they were in the '90s.

Professor Booy said the drop in cases was thanks to Australia's measles vaccination program, which provides two vaccine shots before a child reaches school age.

But since the start of this century objection to vaccinations has increased, and by the end of last year 1.77 per cent of children under seven had been lodged as conscientious objectors by their parents.

The increase is in part due to tighter reporting requirements and the Health Department spokeswoman said vaccination coverage remained high and stable, with 92 per cent of five-year-olds immunised.

Professor Booy he said he expected the number of conscientious objectors to drop once the federal government introduces new "no jab, no play" policies that will stop families of unvaccinated children from accessing certain welfare payments.

So far this year there have been 41 measles cases. Two of the most recently publicised cases have been in Queensland, with one involving an infectious man flying in from Dubai and the other involving an unvaccinated paramedic potentially exposing 4500 people to the disease.