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Declare or face possibility of fines this Chinese New Year
January 2006
AQIS 20601NESB
Detector dogs will be helping quarantine officers lift Year of the Dog spirits at airports and international mail centres this festive season, sniffing out high-risk quarantine items from travellers and mail items arriving in Australia.
Over the Chinese New Year holidays, the highly trained dogs from the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) will be working their noses full-time to make sure that gifts arriving with passengers or via mail are not of quarantine concern.
Items commonly seized around the Chinese New Year period are fresh bamboo shoots, fresh and dried fruit, citrus fruit or peel, chicken, pork products, raw nuts, flower blossoms, coconuts, dried beef, eggs and noodles containing meat or egg pieces.
AQIS spokesperson, Jacquie Travia says the detector teams are ‘dogs of the people,’ helping to protect our unique environment from exotic pests and diseases.
“As the Chinese community celebrates Chinese New Year, AQIS’s detector dogs will demonstrate the traits that characterise the Year of the Dog — they are protective, gentle, loyal and very honest.
“These intelligent, friendly and highly reliable detector dogs are trained to sniff out any risky items in breach of quarantine regulations, complementing the state-of-art x-ray machines at Australian airports and mail centres,” Ms Travia said.
While quarantine officers may confiscate a variety of restricted goods, Ms Travia reminds travellers that declaring quarantine items will not automatically result in seizure.
“Travellers have a legal obligation to make sure they declare all food, plant and animal products or face the consequence of on-the-spot fines or prosecution,” Ms Travia said.
AQIS urges passengers arriving in Australia to:
- correctly fill out their Incoming Passenger Card
- declare for inspection all food, plant material and animal products – if unsure, declare anyway, and
- place items that need to be declared in an easily accessible part of their luggage.
Finding out about Australian quarantine regulations is easy, simply:
- visit www.aqis.gov.au/[language], or
- call AQIS on 1800 020 504 (free call in Australia), or
- contact your travel agent for a free copy of the brochure What Can't I Take Into Australia? and What Can’t Be Mailed To Australia? both in [language].
Rebecca Nuss, AQIS Public Relations 02 6272 3097
AQIS staff who speak [language] are available for media interviews