Nix and Mike

Just a general question for those of you "in the know". We have ALOT of wooden furniture in our house. Some of it antique, some not. Does anyone have any experience on how difficult this may or may not be when taking to Australia in our container? Obviously the wood will all be clean and free from any mould or whatever.
Any other problems?
I know that Aus is very strict about what they let in, and I suddenly thought that I should check for experience in this area !

Thanks!
Nicky

Kingseat

I think as long as the wood is treated then it is fine but don't quote me. Someone with more info will be along soon!

Iwannabethere

Particularly if it's indoor furniture. Outdoor is trickier. IMO AQIS are pretty fair. I have just had my freeze-dried wedding bouquet returned to me, cleared by quarantine and that's full of flowers! If in doubt about a particular piece you can always email AQIS for advice (that's what I did with bouquet).

Pollyana

Thats great news! The freeze-drying works then, we shall remember that for the next person that asks

AS for the wood - if its coming from Aruba that MAY be an issue for Customs. Generally wood from the UK is OK cos its treated. Wood from the Far East, South America etc is more likely to contain the bugs that they are trying to keep out.
Worth contacting AQIS I reckon- www.aqis.gov.au

kronk

ooohh, thats good to know as that was one of the things that has been worrying me. I've got my wedding bouquet dried in a frame which I really want to take with me. Did quarantine need to do anything to your bouquet before they released it to you?

Nix and Mike

Pollyana - thanks for the tip....I'll do that immediately. No point having any hassles if it can be avoided !

Nix

Pollyana

I think the trick is whether its is freeze dried, or just dried flowers. If its just dried, then the almost certainly won't let it in. Dried flowers are on the not-OK list because of seeds. Freeze drying kills the seeds, so it would seem thats the main reason why one gets n the other doesn't.
If you are willing to risk it, bring it, declare it, and they will probably give you the choice of having it irradiated or destroyed - from what I'm told though the treatment can destroy things like dried flowers anyway.

kronk

I think thats all I can do. I've got an email from the company who dried my flowers on their process so all I can do is speak to customs and see what they want to do. I know it has been processed more than just standard drying but isn't freeze dried unfortunately.

njk435

This link is for the database at AQIS, I checked personal effects and wooden articles from Aruba - doesn't appear to be a problem importing from there.

http://www.aqis.gov.au/icon32/asp/ex...eryType=Search

Nix and Mike

Nige - THANKS for taking the trouble !

Nix

shark bait

We shipped a 20ft container to Oz in Oct 2008, it arrived Dec 2008, it was full of wooden furniture, and baskets etc... although I had given my dried wedding bouquet to my mother in law! Customs seemed to just pick things out, e.g. they picked a distressed wooden table out to be fumigated, $180, we had another one but that wasn't mentioned! Another carved wooden hand/chair was fumigated $180! A pair of stepladders worth £10 was picked out to be cleaned $180! Either that or about $100 to distroy them!!! We have still not recieved them!! I think it's a bit hit & miss!!

welovebonds

we were lucky, had an old farm house kitchen table, whicker dining room chairs....some antiques and customs let them all thru. They only checked our Christmas Decoration box and again let it all thru. Amazing while we were unpacking found an unwrapped big cake in the cake tin which seemed to travel well, the packing company just packed it. But no we didn't eat it, it was well past it's sell by date.