Going to Australia in February. Traveling from Sydney to Cairns. We have 3 weeks. I've been told to bring raincoats and bug spray. Any other special things we should bring? Can we bring foods in the country? I'd like to bring my special wrapped diet bars.

Hi, grimreaper!

Bringing food into Australia is a hit-and-miss affair, but most of the time if it's a commercial product and still wrapped, you shouldn't have too much trouble. There are some specific prohibited items which your travel agent will detail for you.

One tip: whatever you bring in, no matter how innocuous it is, declare it at customs with the same gravity as if it were a half-kilo of cocaine. Let them know that you're worried that you might have inadvertently broken a rule. You will probably be pleasantly surprised with the reaction -- and, anyway, since nearly everybody else queues for a long period at the "nothing to declare" window, you will move much faster through the process because you're using the less-crowded "red" windows. Our family always finds SOMETHING to declare, just to get out that little bit more swiftly.

The Universal Packing List is the best packing list generator I've ever come across:

http://upl.codeq.info/

You fill in an online questionnaire and, based on where you're going, what you'll be doing and the degree to which you want to be prepared for all eventualities, the website generates a packing list for you.

I tested it by giving it the same hypothetical trip data three times, once asking only for a list of critical items, next asking for a "normal" packing list, and finally asking for all items. It was interesting to observe what was added to the packing list each time a higher level of preparedness was requested.

As Alan said, taking food into Australia is hit and miss. On one occasion my son was allowed to bring in boxes of Kraft Dinner (macaroni and cheese making kit consisting of dry macaroni noodles and sealed packet of powdered cheese). The next time he entered Australia he again brought Kraft Dinner, or at least attempted to bring it. That time they confiscated it, citing the powdered cheese as a dairy product, the importation of which was prohibitted.

It's useful to know ALL the items, and not just food items, you're prohibitted from carrying into Australia. Here is the Travellers' section of the the Australian Customs Service's website:

http://www.customs.gov.au/site/index...&area_id=5

As far as your diet bars go, they may very well be allowed in. All the same, perhaps as a backup you could find out in advance of your trip if your brand of bars is available in Australia. (But maybe you've already enquired and found out they're not available, which perhaps is why you're asking the question. I'm not sure.)

We declare any food - better than being embarrassed by the sniffer dogs. As the quarantine people told us, anything that goes in your mouth is classed as food. After a holiday in Canada last year, I brought home a packet of 'Moose Droppings' (alias chocolate coated sultanas) for my grandson. The quarantine office looked at these with horror and asked me if they did in fact have anything to do with a moose!

Just light raincoats as it will be hot. There's a big selection of bugspray (and raincoats)here - best personal insect repellent I know is Bushman.

Pat

By light raincoats, would plastic raincoats (cost about $12AU here) be okay, or are you talking about the more expensive ones made of some kind of waterproof material/fabric that are quite expensive and more like coats? Cost probably upwards of $75. I tried finding a raincoat in between the above prices for another trip but were hard to come by. I'd like to find one in Canada.

Thanks to this thread for the packing and other travel tips.

Any suggestions or do you think we could find something suitable in Australia?

Hi Grimreaper,
Having just been through Aus customs I can tell you to listen to Alan & margs advice, declare it.
Staff were having great fun telling the Japanese in nothing to declare that they couldn't bring their crab sticks and raw fish in to the country.
The bin was full of all sorts of stuff.
However the chocolates that we declared were accepted especially after we offered the customs guy one !
;-)

Muck

On a serious note, Australia and New Zealand are 2 countries that do not have some nasty bugs that infest the rest of the world i.e. foot and mouth, rabies and some insects that are the scourge of primary food industries and it is for that reason we have some of the harshest quarantine rules in the world. We have a large range of foods here that you can choose from and I am sure that you can get something very close to what you are used to. Do not bring in any food, wood, or things made of animal hair and take note of the list in the custom's information because the penalty is really too great to chance it.
Light raincoats or umbrellas would be fine and there is enough bug spray here to sink a ship so you don't have to bother with that either unless you are alergic and have a special one that you use. There is a diet section in any Coles, Woolworth etc supermarkets, health food shops and chemists and the Bushman insect repellant is the best as mentioned before.

I second the advice to declare every food item. It didn't occur to me that I needed to report some packaged snacks we had with us and the customs officer gave us quite a lecture when she found them. However, in the end she let us bring the items into the country anyway. Frankly, I wouldn't bother bringing your special bars with you, or maybe just bring (and declare) a couple, knowing that you may lose them.

Either bring, or buy the day you arrive, some high factor sunscreen. The sun in Australia will burn you a lot more quickly than the sun in the USA or Europe. Also bring or buy a sunhat, you can pick one up quite cheaply here at a chemist or local market. If it's a sunny day, the saying here is "slip, slop, slap" - slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat. We do have an very high incidence of skin cancer so please be careful. An insect spray or roll-on called RID in a purple container is easily obtained here and quite good. An umbrella might do instead of raincoats, it shouldn't be cold and wet, just wet. Also trust you know we have different plugs for electrical appliances and also a different voltage to the US - if that's where you're from? You can get adaptors for the plug (would be best to get them in your home country) but voltage depends on the electrical item. Do make sure to declare ALL food items, you will stand a better chance of keeping any wrapped, commercially made items.
Kay

I agree with the other posters.

Australia is being very vigilant lately, especially about food.

They also seem to have very high-tech equipment which can find a grain of salt! I carry a small container of dehydrated potatoes with me everywhere I go--long story..curbs my migraines.

Last time we were coming home to Sydney I forgot all about the potatoes, but they didn't...they found them!

Most packaged food from developed countries they are pretty lenient with, but if you don't declare it, they WILL find it, and it will just slow you down, so best to declare it and put it at the top of your luggage near the opening, so it is easy to get to and show them.

Usually, if you do this, they don't bother to look through the rest of your luggage either!