big_matt

All,

I know this has been broadly covered in other threads but I'm confused about the up-to-date rules around this.

When I took a trip to Oz over Christmas I was told in duty free that if I bought a bottle it wouldn't make it to Oz. An American colleague was told the same thing, even if he had put it in his hold luggage (which seems strange).

Yesterday, I was doing a tour of distillery at home in scotland and they had a sign behind the till saying 'please ask for advice if you intend to purchase a bottle for transport to Australia'. I asked the guy about it and he said there have been some problems and some inconsistent treatment of what can be taken and what can't. Oz seems to have gigantic markup on whisky so maybe they are trying to protect their own prices.

So...does anyone know the current rules for taking on a flight, and what are the rules for when we move back to Oz. Can I put my collection on a ship or do I have to leave it all here?

Cheers.

Pollyana

If you buy a bottle in Duty Free in the UK it will almost certainly not make it to Aus due to the rules about liquids in hand luggage.
Nothing to stop you buying it earlier and putting it in hold luggage though. If its over the duty-free allowance you'd need to declare it this end and yhey might charge you duty on it, thats all.

Alfresco

And if you don't declare it and you get caught, what happens?

GarryP

http://travelsecure.infrastructure.g...tyfree_to.aspx

Basically if you are trying to get whisky in from the UK, it has to be in hold luggage (and securely packed against the throwers).

You apparently can now get duty free in from Singapore (you didn't used to be able to) but it has to be delivered to the gate, no buying it and taking it through security yourself.

You can buy when you land in Oz, but at the local prices.

If you are transiting on to another domestic Oz destination, you won't get it onto the next plane in hand luggage.

Basically it seems mainly to be about getting more money spent in Australian duty free - technically a sealed bag should be enough for them.

Note, the duty free allowance is 2.25 l - so in theory you could get three bottles of non-ripoff-priced whisky into your checked baggage - if you have the weight allowance. Not that I've given the matters some thought or anything....

You can't ship it as I recall, it has to be with you. Otherwise it would almost certainly be cheaper to buy online from the UK - and the tax man (the major winner from the markup) couldn't have that.

Amazulu

Anything in your hold baggage will go straight through with no problem. The main issue with bringing booze into Australia is with the Asian countries through which your flight will transit. They have the restrictions. Buy it during your stopover and it will either be handed to you at purchase or be waiting at your boarding gate. I recently bought 4l of single malt in KL and had no problems bringing it in. You can buy on arrival before immigration and, in Perth at least, prices are not too bad

bcworld

Yes you will. There are no liquid restrictions on domestic flights. For some reason liquids are only dangerous on international flights!

bcworld

No they don't. The problem is Australian government restrictions. Australia is one of very few countries to demand secondary screening at the gate...meaning that people who have already cleared security are subjected to it again immediately prior to boarding. Some foreign airports may decide, quite rightly, that they aren't willing to accommodate this paranoia and don't put in place an arrangement to deliver items to the gate in a manner that is acceptable to Australia.

old.sparkles

If you are planning on putting anything fragile in your hold luggage, you do want to make sure it's properly protected and that's not just alcohol. Someone mentioned 'securely packed against the throwers' (quoting GarryP) but having worked at Heathrow, there is no time to carefully place your bags for loading - and that's after they've been round the sorting systems. Also they load into containers, and your bag could be the one at the bottom of a very heavy stack.

GarryP

http://travelsecure.infrastructure.g...uirements.aspx

If you go by this, they will do secondary screening of duty free etc. You might be lucky enough to be transiting an airport with the right equipment, and have it working, but if not they can steal your duty free.

It seems that there are different rules for purely domestic flights, and flights with an international component (or potential international component).

bcworld

Sure but there are very, very, very few of those. 99.9% of people making a domestic connection will be clearing customs and checking in for a conventional domestic flight. In that case no one will bat an eyelid about carry on liquids.

big_matt

OK, thanks for the input everyone. Sounds like i'd be bringing 3 bottles in my suitcase in the hold and leaving the rest here.

spottydog

Transit refers to people going through the country but not entering it. So here it refers to people, for example, flying to Auckland via Sydney but not actually entering Australia (going through Australian border control).

Within Australia domestic there is no limit (apart from weight) on liquids on flights.

Pollyana

Don't know...haven't been caught yet

Alfresco

Tick tock! They do fit nicely into Pringles tubes.

gregster10217

Slightly off topic, but what is the situation with importing wine? We have a few bottles (60+) that we'd be looking to ship over in a container when we make the move.
I'm guessing that the container would get searched by customs anyway, but would we have to pay import duty on these bottles? They're all from a wine club, nothing outrageously expensive.
Other option is to drink the lot before we come, but seeing the prices over there, would be nice to have a few bottles to keep us going!