Warning - Coming into Australia

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by swagman

Maybe not remembering species correctly but can recall maybe a 'crown of thorns' starfish appearing in Oz waters clearly off an arriving vessel - and within a few years it wiped out huge areas of coral growth. Equally recall a report of a wood chip freighter dumping ballast water from Japan in West Oz waters - and infesting Bunbury Harbour area with a worm that rapidly spread killing off local thingies in the process.

Cheers
JOHN

Every time I go into my favourite lagoon up north [multihulls only] I go around and collect as many of these damn thing's as I can find and throw them up above high water mark.

Probably illegal, but someones got to do it.

It's fairly obvious i'm not the only one as there is more than 1 pile, but i've never seen another boat in this spot.

Dave

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by dana-tenacity

If they need 4 days to do something, and someone turns up unannounced, why not leave them in the quarantine anchorage on their boat for 4 days, do whatever nonsense it is they do, then let them in? No fines and no cost to the taxpayer (court hearings) no bad feelings, I don't mind hanging out on my boat for a few days, catch up on reading and maintenance.

I am sure I read not that long ago in an on-line log of a boat coming in from New Cal, who arrived on a Friday and didn't want to pay for overtime.

They spoke to custom's and were told they could stay at the top of Moreton Island and wait for the stragglers behind them and come in Monday.

They werent allowed ashore or to see anyone but their fellow yachties following.

I do remember them saying they gave the bottom a scrub at Moreton Island before clearing in.

Dave

[swagman]

Originally Posted by northerncat

as for the underwater nasties, ban the container ships with their water ballast these are the real nasties and the impact a yacht has compared to one of these is microscopic, i believe nz had a container ship sponsored outbreak not to long ago
sean

......have Ozzie regulations that ban dumping of water ballast inside territorial limits.

But you don't get too many ballasted freighters getting close to Gt Barrier Reefs etc - and those kinds of places do attract yachties. Appreciate fully the hull dimensions don't come close to matching up - but locations fo where vessels come from, and the locality of where they end up - is an important part of this equation - and can't be ignored.

And its still a bummer the way they treated those Dutch guys.

Cheers
JOHN

[Amgine]

The Crown of Thorns issue on the GBR is not due to importation. It's due to shell collectors. The primary predator which feeds on the Crown of Thorns is the Giant Triton, whose shell is highly sought after and which led to it becoming locally extinct in portions of the GBR (such as near Brisbane) due to local divers collecting and killing Giant Tritons. Combined with local algal blooms (due to agricultural runoff) this has led to population explosions of the Crown of Thorns.

While fouled bottoms are a possible vector for exotic species, similar inspections are not being done on commercial vessels so far as I can find online. Likewise, a proven vector such as ballast water (which directly linked in dozens of exotic species cases in North America and Europe) is not being targeted by this policy.

Also, please note this press release by Australian Customs:

"The obligations on yacht owners and masters to report their movements are no different to those for larger vessels.

This is not, in fact, true. Commercial vessels need not report more than 24 hours prior if their passage to Australia will take less than 48 hours, but only 48 hours otherwise, much less (3 hours, possibly less) for aircraft. [1, 2] Again, the many inspections yachts must endure - and pay for the privilege of receiving - are not apparently required of commercial vessels, ever.

[cat man do]

Well spotted Amgine, seem's yachties are being singled out for special treatment.

Dave

[dana-tenacity]

I got a reply, seems they have dropped the outer 10 day limit. No explanation, no gee we screwed that up sorry, it just seems to have disappeared, or did I imagine it?

[cat man do]

A bit more info on the American sailor being dragged through court.

Article 1
Bundaberg NewsMail

Article 2
Bundaberg NewsMail

He lost his case

Seem's he was given the wrong information when leaving New Caledonia, yet still get's a $4000 fine and has to pay Australian custom's $15,000 legal bill.

Unbelievable.

Dave

[Intentional Drifter]

The wife and I really want to visit Australia and were planning to spend at least six months there. (Probably leaving a fair amount of our cruising kitty, behind!)

All you Aussies -- please tell me it won't be like this all the time in your country. I have no doubt that, since being forewarned is being forearmed, that we will be able to cope with this particular silliness, but stories like this make me wonder if there are other potentially nasty surprises waiting in store for us (from the government, not the brown snakes, crocs or other inhabitants).

ID

[smm]

While the court cases described in the Coastal Passage sound awful, I have to say that our experience with Australian Customs (two cruises, nearly a year in total) was absolutely fantastic.

We exported the boat from Townsville and in addition to granting us a two-week visa extension (I had forgotten that our visas were on a different clock than the boat) they gave us photocopies of cruising information for PNG.

We came from PNG back to OZ on the standard 3-month visa which we extended by 6 months (about A$ 180 apiece). Checked out of Newcastle and then again out of Lord Howe.

Never a problem. This was 2004 - 2005 which does seem to overlap a bit with some of the bad press.

Australian Customs has always had a tough reputation so it is a bit hard to tell if the current bad press represents a change in what customs does or in reporting. My sense is that you want to take some extra care when sailing for Australia, but the situation is the same as with most customs: it is usually friendly and trivial, but any customs agent can really throw the book at you so some attention to detail is worth your while.

Basic Rule of Cruising: The rumour is always worse than reality. If you take bad reports at face value, you'll never go anywere.

-Scott

[WHIZBANG]

"Customs’ barrister Michael White QC, from the Australian Government Solicitor, asked the Magistrate to make an example of Mr Manzari to deter others from making the same mistake."

Clearly his real mistake was visiting Australia.
Since Customs wishes to "deter others from making the same mistake," I would like to assure them they have succeeded. I would never risk my boat in such a screwed up jurisdiction. Or in the idiot-speak of our President; "Mission Accomplished!"

[44'cruisingcat]

"Magistrate Barrett determined that Mr Manzari failed to establish a defence for the charges."

Funny, I thought the burden of proof was on the prosecution.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by smm

Basic Rule of Cruising: The rumour is always worse than reality. If you take bad reports at face value, you'll never go anywere.

-Scott

I agree with you Scott, my dealing with custom's from a couple of years ago was fine.

Seem's it may be a new animal here now though.

And I would have to say it is definetly more than a rumour.

Not saying don't come over, please do, the people and creatures are friendly/ish , I can't vouch for the official's.

This is just a big "HEAD'S UP", thing's have changed.

Dave

[mudnut]

So I take it that everyone that has done the required 96hr thing with customs has also been treated like a common criminal,dragged of to court,fined out of their pants and made to pay legal fees.I say again,It was not the right thing to do to these people totally unfair and un-Australian,and also make sure you meet the requirements to enter any foreign country.I can not believe the Aussie bashing is comming from so many Australians, and given other countries are probably just as bad to some degree, the people outside Australia who have never been here that have commented on this thread to the point of saying"I've scratched OZ of my list"Scatch a few other destinations of ya list also if ya noy prepared to check out the proper procedures."HEADS UP" is how this thread should have read in the first place.It might have led to more people asking to clarify the procedure as opposed to them saying their not comming to OZ full stop.Mudnut.

[Amgine]

Australia has long had a "tough" reputation amongst cruisers, yet nearly every one of us who can ends up going there.

One thing to keep in mind is that Australia has certain vulnerabilities, for which they have taken very strong precautions. Many diseases of ruminants (like sheep and goats) which are endemic elsewhere in the world do not exist in Australia. This gives the local agriculture a huge economic advantage, and they are not at all interested in losing that advantage. For this reason your pet is not welcome, period. The same basic reason is why many varieties of agricultural goods are forbidden.

Many visitors are surprised to find that inspections by Customs are charged to them. It's simple logic which says the visitor should pay for the extra costs involved in letting them into the country, but still people might not have planned to pay for someone to search through their canned goods to determine what they need to pay to have destroyed.

These are all well-publicised, and no one should grumble if they didn't get the list of what not to have onboard before getting to Australia. What has not been well-publicised is the need for 96 hours notice (no more than 10 days, although that may be disappearing from the guidelines the prudent skipper would not take that risk given the recent history.) Sometimes the rumour is not as bad as the reality, which has clearly happened at least 6 times in the past year in Australia.

For me the expenses and risks of visiting Australia would outweigh the benefits. I have friends and family on other routes west, so passing elsewhere will not be a hardship. (I have friends and family in Australia as well, but until immediate family move there I'll plan on skipping it.) It's a personal decision, and one every sailor will have to make on their own. And one which may change if the situation on the ground changes.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by mudnut

."HEADS UP" is how this thread should have read in the first place.It might have led to more people asking to clarify the procedure as opposed to them saying their not comming to OZ full stop.Mudnut.

Infact the thread did start with

Warning coming into Australia
A bit of a warning for anyone coming into OZ.

Pretty close to head's up

Dave