Has anyone taken/shipped tikis to Australia?

Aloha Everyone!

I have a quick question - does anyone have experience with shipping or bringing wood tikis to Australia. We sell a lot of hand carved tikis out of our Stor in Waikiki. We get a lot of Australian tourists, and they always ask if the ones we sell can be brought into Australia. No one really knows.

I know they can't have any bark, dirt or boring holes from insects, but has anyone had any luck, good or bad, that they can share? Is there a difference between taking it on the plane and having it shipped to Australia?

Mahalo for any help!

I usually ship through the Post Office. On their web site (www.usps.com) they list all the restrictions for each country.

Here is the prohibitions for Australia http://pe.usps.gov/text/imm/immicl/immiclab_012.html

Country Conditions for Mailing - Australia

Prohibitions (130)

Coins; bank notes; currency notes (paper money); securities of any kind payable to bearer; traveler's checks; platinum, gold, and silver (manufactured or not); precious stones; jewelry; and other valuable articles are prohibited.

Fruit cartons (used or new).

Goods bearing the name "Anzac."

Goods produced wholly or partly in prisons or by convict labor.

Perishable infectious biological substances.

Radioactive materials.

Registered philatelic articles with fictitious addresses.

Seditious literature.

Silencers for firearms.

Used bedding.

Restrictions

Meat and other animal products; powdered or concentrated milk; and other dairy products requires permission to import from the Australian quarantine authorities.

Permission of the Australian Director-General of Health is required to import medicines.

Observations

Duty may be levied on catalogs, price lists, circulars, and all advertising introduced into Australia through the mail, irrespective of the class of mail used.

Looks like you're in the clear!

G'day when we travelled back from the states with a lot of wood in our luggage we just declared it and they checked it over and said all good! If you can show them receipts that you purchased the stuff in proper shops and the pieces are lacquered then they were pretty happy with that. Mrs Tiki Beat went to Fiji last year and she bought back lots of little wooden things and as long as they didnt have evidence of living creatures - holes etc, then the customs people were happy. Like I said if the travellers are straight up and declare the stuff then the customs people are pretty easy to get along with. Hope this helps you out

I bought back plenty of wood on a cruise to the South Pacific. Almost none of it was treated. It got through okay, but we made sure it was all solid and no signs of bugs or other animals or fungus or anything... Port customs are apparently more leniant than airport customs.

As Marcus said, only solid good quality wood and declare it. As long as its solid and disease free it should be okay.

On 2006-08-22 11:59, stuff-o-rama wrote:
I usually ship through the Post Office. On their web site (www.usps.com) they list all the restrictions for each country.

Here is the prohibitions for Australia http://pe.usps.gov/text/imm/immicl/immiclab_012.html

Country Conditions for Mailing - Australia

Prohibitions (130)

Used bedding.

[ quote]

Looks like you're in the clear!

as long as your tikis are made of used bedding!!!

my parents posted me back a wooden Bongo with cow hide (complete with cow hair) from south africa. it got sent through customs for about 3 months. this was 10 years ago, and mainly because of the cow hide.

Last year my mom bought me a wooden tiki pendant from New Zealand and bought it over in her luggage with no problems.

With postage, as long as its not containing any living things and is stained/burnt it should be a ok. :wink:

forgot to say i'm from Australia (or Tasmania specifically) :D

[ Edited by: Taztiki 2006-08-24 21:39 ]

It's safe for people to bring it into to Australia as long as they declare it. This is VERY, VERY important. If the declared goods are suspect of any borers etc, they are sprayed for a small fee - well worth it in my opinion.