We create a combined sample of 10,904 late and early-type galaxies from the 2MTF and 6dFGSv surveys in order to accurately measure bulk flow in the local Universe .
Galaxies and groups of galaxies common between the two surveys are used to verify that the difference in zero-points is < 0.02 dex .
We introduce a maximum likelihood estimator ( \eta MLE ) for bulk flow measurements which allows for more accurate measurement in the presence non-Gaussian measurement errors .
To calibrate out residual biases due to the subtle interaction of selection effects , Malmquist bias and anisotropic sky distribution , the estimator is tested on mock catalogues generated from 16 independent large-scale GiggleZ and SURFS simulations .
The bulk flow of the local Universe using the combined data set , corresponding to a scale size of 40 h ^ { -1 } Mpc , is 288 \pm 24 km s ^ { -1 } in the direction ( l,b ) = ( 296 \pm 6 ^ { \circ } , 21 \pm 5 ^ { \circ } ) .
This is the most accurate bulk flow measurement to date , and the amplitude of the flow is consistent with the \Lambda CDM expectation for similar size scales .