Thread: importing wooden moulding planes

Originally Posted by John Saxton

.....quite some years back.....

That was the bit that worked most in your favour, I suspect.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

That was the bit that worked most in your favour, I suspect.

They were just as serious about the importation of anything looking like wood as I as I suspect they are today.
I remember that we were held up for quite a while as they went over not only the wood rounds for turning but the planes as well.I respect the effort they go.

BICON on the dep of ag web site lists the relevant info for importing most things.

If decided they need assessment at the mail centre the planes will most likely come under case 'timber and timber products' . There are fairly basic conditions there. 'Tis wise to have documents accurately describing the planes accompany them - the sellers description should cover this. Generally manufactured wooden items are low risk, except if they still have bark- this will put the in a different risk category that may need treatment- I would think this is an unlikely outcome( that they have bark). The table of highly processed wooden articles includes many items, closest it gets to looks to be tool handles or maybe at a stretch Craft items.

On arrival at the mail centre they may not get assessed at all, but if they do, the assessment in the first instance will be by the biosecurity officers.

Cheers

At the height of summer a few years ago I became aware of native bees, parasitic wasps and mud wasps using some uncleaned braces hanging on the wall in the shed as a handy nesting site. At the time I thought how easy it would be to package up a brace and post it somewhere with the insect egg or larvae inside.
Over the past ten years or so I have bought a lot of braces and brace tools from overseas and elsewhere in Aus' a lot of them in as-found uncleaned condition. A brace arrived from the USA a couple of years ago and upon dismantling it I found what looked like a spiders nest inside the chuck. It looked old and there was no spider in residence, I'm sure that would have raised a few eyebrows in quarantine.
Normally I use the back of my ute as a table when opening parcels and carefully go through all the packaging in case there is a small part amongst it, since finding the spider nest I also keep a can of fly spray handy on the off chance of a stowaway being onboard. So far I haven't had to use it.
As far as wooden handles on the tools are concerned, I've never been queried and have had about three parcels opened by the authorities.
Cheers,
Geoff.