Declaring items at customs

[suefrater 13]

Hiya.

On reading all your posts regarding getting items though customs..although not really allowed!!! i:e wood, wicker etc, we have some dried flower arrangements, and other wooden items such as brooms, wooden spoons, rolling pins! large church candles etc, ( you might laugh coz non on these are exactly sentimental!!) but my question is, if we were to declare them, would they then give us the option first, so we can decide if we want to bin them or will they discard them and fine us without us having a say??

[Jen78 95]

Hi Sue,

Those items would go in the container and the shipping company will tell you what's allowed and what's not. Wood and wicker are allowed if they are treated, we just gave our picnic basket and the cane furniture an obvious coat of varnish.  All other wood is ok as long as treated.  We were told no candles,  no dried flowers -I had to leave my dried, pressed and framed wedding bouquet with my mum,  gutted! We brought wooden kitchen implements and photo frames, ornaments etc, we were given a form by the shipping company to fill in and we listed all the wooden items on there.  We had no issues with customs.

Hope this helps, Jen xx

[ali 189]

6 hours ago, Jen78 said:

Hi Sue,

Those items would go in the container and the shipping company will tell you what's allowed and what's not. Wood and wicker are allowed if they are treated, we just gave our picnic basket and the cane furniture an obvious coat of varnish.  All other wood is ok as long as treated.  We were told no candles,  no dried flowers -I had to leave my dried, pressed and framed wedding bouquet with my mum,  gutted! We brought wooden kitchen implements and photo frames, ornaments etc, we were given a form by the shipping company to fill in and we listed all the wooden items on there.  We had no issues with customs.

Hope this helps, Jen xx

I left my pressed bouquet behind too with my mother in law.

For the OP here's a link: https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Ente/Brin  some people will tell you that they have brought restricted items without problem.  This is the luck of the draw (or rather inspection), there are also lots of people who have either had to pay to have things treated or paid to have them destroyed.  We didn't take the risk of having our shipment delayed at customs or the chance of having to pay out a lot more $$$

[verystormy 85]

Wood is generally fine. I have been through customs with wooden carvings from Africa in my suit case, declared them and they have a quick look and pass through. Wicker can be brought in, but you have to agree to fumigation which is expensive.