This topic has been hashed over before. In
Australia, the
legal requirements for gas systems is radically different to the US ones. Here, the gas pipelines MUST be certified tubing (it comes with a green cover) and MUST be installed by a certified
marine gas installer. The gas pipeline has a range of requirements for mounting, protection etc.
Gas bottle
installation must also meet a list of requirements. The regulators must be double stage models. The burner/grill/oven must have auto cutoffs and I believe auto ignition. There should be a manual cut off near the stove. There are requirements for detectors etc.
It is a bit tricky to evade these requirements as vessel state
registration and probably Aus.
registration and most likely
insurance, require that these conditions are met.
The cost estimate just for the pipe
installation given ($8 000 to $9 000) originally is actually very typical for a
small boat. A small
charter vessel near Cairns laid out $25 000 for the pipe installation some years ago. There are many unhappy
boat owners involved. Considerable compliance evasion as well, I suspect.
If you are importing a boat to Aus. you need to be aware of all this as overseas specs simply will most likely not meet Aus. requirements.
Exemptions can be managed. e.g. if the gas cooker is aft
cockpit mounted and there are no gas lines at all in the boat then most if not all of the requirements go out the window.
Induction cookers and or microwave ovens with all the associated
power requirements are looking to be better alternatives. $8000 buys a lot of
solar panels and/or a small gen set. Diesel is another option as these stoves can be used as boat heaters as well ... maybe suitable for Tasmania, but not the tropics.
I also believe that conditions may vary from state to state, but one should check this out carefully. (e.g. private boat registration is not even required in the NT.)