supa Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 I'm taking down the decorations now (the one job I hate more than putting the weekly shop away!) and have decided to separate them into boxes of special stuff to take and stuff like tinsel that we could replace. I know that customs are pretty sniffy about fir cones, but is there anything else that is a no-no? We've got a couple of wooden tree decs which are varnished (and were ironically bought in Oz), but I don't know if they are OK. We have a gorgeous tree which cost a fortune last year but it has cones so I was wondering if we can pick them off? Any help appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PositivePixie Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Our movers said the wooden ornaments we have would be fine - one is just ply wood the other is varnished and he said they were fine, just nothing made of wicker or cones. I've heard someone else had cones on their tree, even though they were fake and AQIS made them pay to get them removed, but that's not first hand and I might have gotten the wrong end of the stick. The movers did say though that one person they had ignored them and put in a cone in the christmas decorations and they had to pay to get the three boxes of Christmas Decorations treated as they would all have been in contact with the one cone or something, which cost a load more - argh! I think its basically, no cones (or fake cones lol), no wicker, no other real plant material (eg plaited reed wreath or anything). But wood, varnished/ply should be fine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest john76 Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 I'm taking down the decorations now (the one job I hate more than putting the weekly shop away!) and have decided to separate them into boxes of special stuff to take and stuff like tinsel that we could replace. I know that customs are pretty sniffy about fir cones, but is there anything else that is a no-no? We've got a couple of wooden tree decs which are varnished (and were ironically bought in Oz), but I don't know if they are OK. We have a gorgeous tree which cost a fortune last year but it has cones so I was wondering if we can pick them off? Any help appreciated. Hi there as we have just had our boxes delivered a few weeks ago (of which 3 boxes was all chrimbo decs) thought I would jump in and let you know our shipper gave me the same advice as in no cones etc be them real or not I would imagine your tree will be a no but on the other hand they sell real nice trees here and of course if your coming out soon they are half price at the minute :laugh:, we had to throw out a lots of decorations garlands etc but we had the view to replace them would be a lot cheaper than paying customs their fees to destroy them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LKC Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 We got rid of anything tatty, anything with pine cones and the lights, but everything else we bought. We didn't have a tree as we used to get a 'real' one every year. We didn't have any problems. The packers put them in a box with some other ornaments, and I don't even think that the box was opened. We bought all of our wooden decorations because they were either painted or varnished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derham Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 We took down our decorations yesterday and we cut all the pine cones off, just need to remember and re-box as the box states ****** and pine cones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supa Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 Thanks everyone for your responses (hope you are settling in fine john76). May risk cutting cones off a couple of items; good point about the boxes Derham, will definately bear that in mind. Have to go carefull not to end up in the scenario you mention PositivePixie - it would be just my luck to get caught. May however take a lead from LKC and buy a real one each year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewebweazel Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 We did our first real packing for Oz yesterday, Xmas tree came down and decorations were sorted. Anything with twigs, twine, pine cones and feathers were turfed out, even Santa's little helper, who guards our tree every year, stopping naughty children from touching Xmas Decorations, (by reporting back to Santa) had liposuction to remove the sand from his feet. Mrs W muttered a few choice about Ozzie custom officers breeding when she has to throw out the Sour Dough Xmas decorations that the kids had made. Has anyone had problems with artificial Xmas trees getting through? Mine has no pine cones and I vacuumed each and every branch. I'm just worried that AQIS might decide that they have to "treat" the tree and themselves to some of my cash because there may be some contamination from natural pine cone decorations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
family of five Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 We did our first real packing for Oz yesterday, Xmas tree came down and decorations were sorted. Anything with twigs, twine, pine cones and feathers were turfed out, even Santa's little helper, who guards our tree every year, stopping naughty children from touching Xmas Decorations, (by reporting back to Santa) had liposuction to remove the sand from his feet. Mrs W muttered a few choice about Ozzie custom officers breeding when she has to throw out the Sour Dough Xmas decorations that the kids had made. Has anyone had problems with artificial Xmas trees getting through? Mine has no pine cones and I vacuumed each and every branch. I'm just worried that AQIS might decide that they have to "treat" the tree and themselves to some of my cash because there may be some contamination from natural pine cone decorations. When we packed up last week got rid of a santa as think it had sand in the bottom, sorry santa. What about clay decerations the kids have made are we allowed these? Tina Family of Five Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fashionably Late Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 We were told no to our artificial tree even though it had no cones. We gave the tree away as I heard a few people paying big money to have their trees destroyed by AQIS. The only company that said we could bring our tree was Pickford's but the rest of movers said it would be best if we didn't bring the tree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 I'd be wary on anything with fake berries and the like also. I've been told these are also a no go. I have some lovely decs with fake berries on but will be leaving them behind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewebweazel Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 We were told no to our artificial tree even though it had no cones. We gave the tree away as I heard a few people paying big money to have their trees destroyed by AQIS. The only company that said we could bring our tree was Pickford's but the rest of movers said it would be best if we didn't bring the tree. Thanks for the info, it does seem to be a bit of a grey area when Pickfords say yes and everybody else says no! I have now emailed AQIS to get it from the horses mouth, but I doubt that they would honour it if the answer is yes it is ok, customs / immigration are a law unto themselves. Has anyone challenged AQIS on items that have to be treated or destroyed? It seems silly to me that a plastic Xmas tree that has been cleaned or rusty tools (spanners ect) may harbour bugs. I suppose those plastic and metal eating bug from Planet ZOG have not reached Australia yet, but "Newsflash" Mr Customs officer they have not reached the rest of Planet Earth either and I did not take my Xmas Tree with me the last time I left Earth! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest anitaw Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 You can buy really good fake trees or real trees here quite cheaply. How much would it cost to ship compared with buying a new one here.....plus one less stress. Leave your tree (unless you are REALLY attached to it) and worry about it in another 11 months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewebweazel Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 You can buy really good fake trees or real trees here quite cheaply. How much would it cost to ship compared with buying a new one here.....plus one less stress. Leave your tree (unless you are REALLY attached to it) and worry about it in another 11 months. I get what you are saying (and agree) but Mr Weazel doesn't want to move to Oz without taking her familiar items with her. We have done the emigration thing once before and the last time all our worldly possessions were in 1 x 1.6 cubic meter crate it seemed to take us forever to get a properly functioning household again, this time we want to land on our feet running. The other thing is the weight + size don't matter to much when you are being quoted a half or full container, majority of the cost seems to be in paperwork and that is the same if you are taking a few boxes or a 40 ft container! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supa Posted January 10, 2012 Author Share Posted January 10, 2012 I'd be wary on anything with fake berries and the like also. I've been told these are also a no go. I have some lovely decs with fake berries on but will be leaving them behind. Oh flipping heck, I hadn't thought about berries!! In the end, I packed everything suspicious into a seperate box leaving the "certains" in the other boxes. Looks like I need to look for berries too. Arghhh. Cheers all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewebweazel Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 I contacted AQIS about the Plastic Xmas trees and this is what they cam back with Hello Mr Weazel, (changed to protect the guilty) Thank you for your enquiry regarding the importation of Christ decorations. Christ decorations that comply with import conditions may be imported into Australia. Used artificial Christmas trees may be imported into Australia. Please inspect the truck of the tree closely as some manufactures use a real piece of bark covered timber for aesthetic purposes. An artificial tree with a timber truck would require treatment on arrival at your expense. You can check the import conditions of a particular commodity by following the link below. Import Conditions Please be aware that packing materials may also act as vectors for biosecurity risk material. Please follow the hyperlink below to ensure your packaging also meets Australian import conditions. Timber packaging and dunnage If you have any further questions please feel welcome to contact us again at sea.cargo@daff.gov.au . Regards xxxxxxx Operations Officer | Air and Sea Cargo Program | Biosecurity Quarantine Operations Division I think I will be sticking the email to my XMAS tree box!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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