Moving household items to Australia: Your complete guide

It’s one thing to move house. It’s a different thing altogether to move house across continents! That’s why we wanted to give you a complete guide to moving household items to Australia.

In our guide, you’ll find information on:

• Unaccompanied Personal Effects (UPEs)
• Fees and charges
• Duty-free concessions
• Clearing your belongings once in Australia
• Tips for preparing your goods
• The best way to pack your belongings

Unaccompanied Personal Effects (UPEs)

Unaccompanied Personal Effects include your household and personal items that you’re taking with you to Australia but that’ll arrive separately to you. Usually this means these items arrive in Australia by air, sea or post.

Typical UPEs are clothing, personal hygiene and grooms items, furniture, appliances, sporting equipment and books.

To check if an item you’d like to take with to Australia is allowed or not, you can consult the importing guide of the Australian Border Force.

However, according to Australian import regulations, the following items are not UPEs:

• Cars
• Car parts
• Commercial goods
• Bequeathed goods
• Items that have been bought online

Here’s what you cannot take with you

You are prohibited from bringing certain items into Australia. These items are:

• Fresh fruit and vegetables.
• Live plants and bulbs.
• Prohibited and restricted seeds.
• Unidentified seeds, including spices.
• Live animals that require an import permit, including pets. Find out here how to take pets to Australia.
• Biological products including some plant-based, herbal medications.
• Unprocessed goods of plan or animal origin.
• Soiled goods, or goods containing organic residues.
• Goods knowingly infested with pests or diseases.

To do a search for a specific item, you can go to the Australian Border Force’s website section on prohibited items.

Fees and charges

There are multiple fees and charges you have to include in your budget. These include but are not necessarily limited to:

• Documentation screening charges.
• Inspection fees. Your final inspection fee will depend on the time it takes to inspect your goods.
• Treatment of goods, if applicable.
• Facilitation fees and storage fees, charged by Approved Arrangement (AA) sites.

To get an accurate costing, it’s best to speak consult either the website of the Australian Border Force or to speak to a reputable import company.

Duty-free concessions

You may be eligible for concessions on customs duty and Goods and Services Tax if you and your goods meet certain requirements.

Requirements that you have to meet:

• You arrived on a ship or aircraft from a place outside Australia.
• You meet permanent residency requirements.

Requirements that your belongings have to meet:

The goods must be:

• Your personal property;
• Suitable and intended for use by you in Australia; and
• Personally owned and used overseas by you for a specified length of time. Usually, this is 12 months prior to your departure to Australia.

Please be aware that you won’t receive concessions for:

• Cars or car parts.
• Tobacco and tobacco products.
• Alcoholic beverages.

Clearing your belongings

You can arrange to have your goods cleared yourself, or you can use an agent or representative to arrange to have your goods cleared on your behalf.

To clear your UPEs, you must complete and lodge an Unaccompanied Personal Effects Statement (B543 Form). You can lodge the form in person or online. Read more about both options here.

Tips for preparing your items

As mentioned, Australia wants to prevent pests and diseases entering the country. This necessitates the emptying, draining, cleaning and drying of any items that have come into contact with food, soil, plants, animals, or their products.

Let’s look at some specific examples of what you can do:

• Garden furniture, fencing, pots, ornaments, outdoor toys, tools and implements: Remove all soil, animal and plant debris.
• Waste bins, brooms, and vacuum cleaners: Remove all waste from these items.
• Container and appliances: Clean these items.
• Camping and sporting equipment: Thoroughly clean tents, backpacks, golf clubs, soccer boots and the like.
• Carpets, rugs, and mats: Vacuum.
• Animal bedding, grooming equipment, cages, and fish tanks: Wash and vacuum; remove all traces of pet hair; drain and clean.
• Fresh water sporting equipment: Drain and dry equipment like reservoirs, wetsuits, and fishing tackle.
• Household items made from wood or with wooden components: Check wooden artefacts and toys, musical instruments, furniture, kitchenware, timber and items with wooden components for any signs of insect infestation. Either treat affected items or leave these items behind. Also check furniture and baskets containing materials such as bamboo, banana leaf, cane, rattan, and wicker.
• Everyday household items: Check for plant material such as seeds, flowers, leaves and pine cones. Think ornaments, photos albums, pot pourri, artefacts, decorations, and the like. Don’t forget to check the fillings of heat bags.
• Fresh food or opened packages of dry foods, and herbs and spices: Do not pack these items. You could import these items but it might be easier to simply buy fresh once you’re in Australia.

Packing your belongings

If you pack properly when moving household items to Australia, you’ll minimize the time it takes the Department to inspect your goods. This in turn will help keep the costs of the inspection to a minimum.

Here are tips from the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources on how to make their job easier:

Create a packing list:

Record all boxes and what is in each box. Also include a description of what the goods are made from. For example, metal bed frame or cane basket. The Australian authorities will ask for this list.

Label and number:

Number the packing boxes and match the numbers on your packing list. Be sure to use permanent marker to write on boxes when you’re labelling them. Don’t use sticky labels, as these often fall off during the move.

Cartons and packing materials:

It is best to not use second-hand boxes or bags, unless you’re absolutely certain these are free from animal or plant material. Additionally don’t use straw, sawdust, wood shavings or other plant materials as packing or filler.

Pack items in groups:

Pack goods that the biosecurity officer may be interested in together and group the boxes together.

Pack for safety:

Securely wrap sharp or breakable objects such as knives or ceramic items. Clearly mark boxes with medical items, dangerous goods, or any items that could pose a safety risk. Do not pack flammable items such as fireworks or paint thinners.

Let’s recap what to do when moving household items to Australia

Your personal belonging and household goods are classified as Unaccompanied Personal Effects. The biosecurity officer will be interested in items that originated from animals or plants, or that have been in contact with animals, plants, water, food or soil.

To minimize the time it takes to inspect your goods, you should clean your belongings and pack the boxes in a way that makes it easy for the officer to check your belongings. The inspection is charged on time, so the shorter the inspection has to be, the less you’ll have to pay.

If you meet certain requirements, you’ll be eligible for concessions on customs duty and Goods and Services Tax.

For more information, please see the website of the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. If you’d like information on how to move your pet to Australia, we recommend reading this blog post.