UK baby car seats in Aus - legal?
 

Hi there
We're off to Brisbane on the 1st October and trying to figure out what to ship and what to take! Little one will be 14 months then, so we've forked out for a seat for her on the plane for our own sanity (great special on Malaysian), but of course her isofix car seat can't be used on the plane, so we've tracked down a Britax Freeway which works with a lap belt. But... it doesn't meet the Aus standards. So should we take both car seats with us, or do you think we can get away with the Freeway until the container arrives? Husband's not keen on breaking laws within our first week!!

Re: UK baby car seats in Aus - legal?
 

Although you'd probably get away with using a UK seat here, it would not be legal. Imagine the legal & insurance consequences if you were involved in an accident? The ISOFIX system is also not legal in Australia at the moment but that is supposed to be changing.

Re: UK baby car seats in Aus - legal?
 

You might consider arranging a hire car at the airport with a pre-ordered baby seat. Hire car probably about $50 a day and usually $10 a day for the baby seat. If you are planning to have a hire car for a bit anyway this may be the way to go. Then you could go straight to Target and buy an approved baby seat. Only alternative seems to be bring both car seats with you on the plane.

Re: UK baby car seats in Aus - legal?
 

Hello Clare :)

This question has been asked quite a lot on here and I'm 99% sure that a UK car seat is NOT legal in Aus and you have to have an Aus one. If you do a search for child car seats you should get some results on here.

Enjoy Brisbane :)

Re: UK baby car seats in Aus - legal?
 

Thanks all, he was right then ;)
when we came over for our validation trip we hired a car and car seat from Avis and had the dodgiest car seat I've ever seen, so i figured ours had to be better than that. There goes the third suitcase then!!

Re: UK baby car seats in Aus - legal?
 

From here and other (official) websites UK will not be legal - that is why friends with their 4 day old bubs in UK are using it :D She also was getting too big for it and needed the next size up so was good timing to buy one in Oz.

We moved here when our DD was 14mths old - Did not splash out on seat on plane for her as she was on smallish side and fitted ok into skycot - got plenty of sleep on 1st leg not so much on 2nd.

I don't know about QLD, but in NSW you can get taxis with car seats in, where as you can't in VIC.

btw welcome to the madhouse, sorry forum :D

Re: UK baby car seats in Aus - legal?
 

Just found a thread:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...child+car+seat

Re: UK baby car seats in Aus - legal?
 

100% Not legal...do not risk it!


Aussie Car seats are fixed to the car by a different method than Isofix.

Australians reckon have the safest car seats in the world....pity about the drivers!

Cheers

KB

Re: UK baby car seats in Aus - legal?
 

Hi,

We were also wondering about this as we have an isofix car seat for our son, which cost us a packet! My brother in law is from Sydney and our nephew is only four weeks old so they've just bought a seat. He tells me that the Aussie system is very different to ours. So we'll have to shell out for a new seat.

Found this site which has some good birth to 18kg seats.

http://www.babiesgalore.com.au/

hope this helps

Milly

Re: UK baby car seats in Aus - legal?
 

As people have said you are not allowed to use UK car seats in OZ. The price for car seats in OZ are from about $150 upwards and you can get them from Target, k-mart and all the usual baby type shops. We brought one but when we got our second car we just brought another one someone was selling in the local paper for $60.

Re: UK baby car seats in Aus - legal?
 

Hi Claire

We asked this question cos our little un was 20mths when we came here. No UK car seats aren't legal so we had one bought for us for when we got here and cost us $120. Its a good seat and has an anchorage system and fits Georgia quite well and she is now 2 and half.

As far as the plane is concerned we flew with Singapore Air and had a sky cot for her. It was much better thasn having a seat they recommended it to me when I booeked and it was the best choice I made. Because she could eat, play and sleep in it and it came with blankets and she had a brill time in it. Do Malaysia have these? It also meant that we were at the front end of the seat rows and had more leg room :D



Good luck with your trip

Ang

Re: UK baby car seats in Aus - legal?
 

Thanks for all the tips. We used a sky cot on our validation trip when she was 9 months, but she was already too long for it then (despite being less than half the max weight), plus is a very mobile sleeper! We had a nightmare journey, and she wasn't even crawling on the way there, she's a little bit on the hyperactive side and not inclined to sit still for even 3 seconds...
Had originally planned to fly Singapore this time, but Malaysian were offering a fare, with her in her own seat, that was cheaper than her being on our laps/in a sky cot on Singapore - so we jumped at it! Plus gives us an extra 10kg baggage.

Re: UK baby car seats in Aus - legal?
 

There seems to be a lot of contradictory information about isofix - Jonahs Mummy posted a link to a PDF document that described the rules and claims that ISOFIX is acceptable:

http://www.goldcoastsmile.com/ebooks...Restraints.pdf

Here is the whole thread: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=354223

I've had a look around a few government websites and can't find a definitive answer though....

Martyn

Re: UK baby car seats in Aus - legal?
 

So the Recaro car seat i have on order for my 9 month old which is not isofix but secured by the seat belt wont be legal either? :(

Re: UK baby car seats in Aus - legal?
 

No chance on that one I'm afraid :(
The only doubt seems to be over isofix......

Martyn