Taking animals to Australia = Expensive

[MidLandOne]

It is no problem to import cats and dogs to NZ without quarantine if from a rabies free country and quarantine en-route can be guaranteed (generally requires the animal stays on the same aircraft for the whole of the route without off loading). Of course that cannot apply to non commercial carriers such as yachts, and airlines will on acceptance of a pet for carriage, quarantine the flight against all other non complying animal bookings (usually zoo animals will be given preference and the pet then bumped to another flight though) and require that an approved animal courier handle all the biosecurity requirements (such as vet certificates) caging, land transportation and entry procedure in order to ensure all goes well.

From memory the current rabies free countries are NZ, Australia, UK, Norway, Ireland and Singapore. Hawaii is also rabies free, so is ok, but the USA is not (even though it is a rabies controlled country). As way of example of the en route quarantine, cats and dogs flown from the UK to NZ are not allowed to be off loaded or transferred in the USA while en route.

A few years back I helped a family I recruited from the UK bring their cats to NZ - the airline was very helpful and well organised having all the information and assurances (eg minimum temperature in the hold, was 15C from memory) all to hand. I suspect they find cats and dogs less trouble to transport than humans .

With a very few exceptions applying only to the UK and Australia all other pets are either banned (eg reptiles, birds) or require quarantine on arrival. I don't know what the requirement would be for a cat or dog arriving on a yacht and wanting to be imported (rather than just quarantined to the yacht while visiting), but I suspect it would not be possible or else very difficult.

[Bloodhound]

In the mid-seventies we imported a Bloodhound from the UK to Brisbane, Australia. It still required 6 months quarantine. At that time you could import from the USA to Australia via Hawaii or the UK but the animal required 6 months quarantine in Hawaii or the UK followed by a further 6 months in Australia, and if coming from Hawaii I think it was a year in Australian quarantine. We thought we could import semen to use in AI, but it too was banned as a potential vector for Rabies. At one time before safe fumigation was possible, lumber used in crates arriving from N.A. had to be knot-free (pine beetles). Passenger aircraft interiors aren't sprayed any more on landing from overseas, but they used to be . Bottom line: there has been far too much irreparable and irreversible damage done to Australia's ecology (including English bloody sparrows of all things!) to risk arriving yachties innocently importing further disasters. If you're planning to land in Oz, don't bring pets --- they're not welcome; hence, the very high fees.

[stillbuilding]

As MarkJ notes, it is not just Rabies at issue. I have a dog in Hong Kong which is unable to travel to Australia with me because of sub-clinical infection with Ehrlichia (Tick Fever) - common infection in Americas and elsewhere. Lives normal life in HK but clearly a concern that it would spread in Australia. PITA but cannot complain about the rationale.
No problem with trying to limit the spread of exotic disease.

[cooper]

Holy cow, Batman! Talk about giving the messenger a bit of biffo!

All I did was pass on what the Quarantine bloke told me that I thought others should be aware of.

: )

And am so glad you did....

Sorry Mark if you took a bruise, not meant that way. Australia has been hammered for its quarantine status. (and its costs). Fact is it has a odd situation. It is an isolated Island with a serious attitude to pest management. The fact that it has been so F09878976ed up by introduced species has given it a hard attitude.

Its status is a market advantage. It also means that certain indigenous situations can for the moment survive. I can tell you that species survival is at a brink.

...respect