Thread: Every tried to import exotics

Matthew,
I looked into importing container loads from the Solomons a few years ago (just before all their civil "unrest" broke out). At the time it needed to be fumigated and there was a fair bit of paper work involved. Having said that, for a single, sound, clean dressed piece with no visible borer etc holes it may be pretty simple. My next door neighbour's son is in the navy and he brought a slab back from PNG after a posting on Bougainville. The AQUIS bloke looked it over, told him if there had been any more sapwood on it he may have destroyed it (it had sapwood along one edge, slightly spalted, tapering from about 40mm to nothing) and let it through.

Mick

PS there's another Mexico besides Victoria? :eek:

Matthew,

You should have no difficulty, but you must specifically declare it to Customs. I have also brought cocobolo from the US with no problem. They may want to fumigate it, but I doubt it, if there is no sign of insect attack.

Rocker

I bought over about 1.5m3 of NZ Rimu to Tasmania. I described it as 'demolition timber', and was anxious about how they would treat me. The truck driver said that they opened the container, saw a few flies buzzing about, and said 'no wurries' and let her through. True. Makes you wonder. I guess when there's 500,000 tons of woodchips going the other way, who cares?

Tassie,
it also depends on the country of origin, NZ has even less pests than we do AFAIK (brother works for customs). The same container full of timber, with flies buzzing around in it, would probably be treated very differently if it came from, say, Vietnam. Apparently it's fairly easy to bring livestock from NZ to Oz but very difficult from the Europe or Africa to Oz. The reason being that they've got diseases there which have never been detected here (and AQIS would like to keep it that way ).

Mick

I supose you could plane it flat & smooth, give it a nice coat of shelac & call it a cerimonial sleeping board.
Seriously my fatherinlaw was on tankers & a lot of the crew would bring in cane furniture. If it was unfinished it would be siezed & distroyed. If it was finished it was ok. So these jokers could be seen out on deck with a tin of spar varnish brushing away on the way back.

Mathew , Carbatec Bris , had quite a few blocks of cocobolo sticks approx 50x50 , also Lazarides had some larger blocks as well .There is a fair bit of cocobolo around if you look hard enough .Now have a look at the AQIS 'ICON' , you should find just about everything you need to know .


Check out :
www.aqis.gov/icon32/asp/ex

1)In the ' Commodity Name ' type, ' TIMBER'
2) choose a country
3) select a search criteria

Now, from my own experience , if you intend to import 'hobby' quantities of timber ( sizes that can be shipped via airmail )
1) there is no evidence of decay , loose bark or borer holes
2) and the timber is less than 200mm thick

then you can have it shipped to your address.I imported 2 blocks of Tupelo Gum , from Canada , last year came straight to the door .The blocks were 500 lg X 200mm sq .

There are a couple of things to bear in mind , the AQIS officer told me , if they find any borer holes even just one , the timber will be
1)destroyed or
2) the importer will be up for a hefty fumigation bill
3) best to confine yourself to small carving or turning blocks of timber ( 200mm or less thick and less than a metre long )

if you can find a block of cocobolo 200x200x1000 , it will cost a motzah to ship.My tupelo gum cost $30.00 per block airmail from Ontario & Tupelo weighs just a tad more than balsa !!!!!!!!

regards
Veebull
ps. just re-read you post Mathew , I see you are already in Canada ! If it were me , just put the cocobolo in your suitcase , and make sure you declare it to Customs when you arrive