It may seem that there is nothing easier than catch a flight to Australia from Europe for 500-700EUR (you will certainly find some good offers on: www.flipo.pl), prepare some savings, pack basic stuff, alcohol, food, and set off! Well, not exactly. Although Australia is absolutely one of the most civilized countries, it is necessary to organize a few things before going there and have some awareness of what can and what cannot be brought into the Australian continent so as not to be disappointed upon entering this exceptional land. Feel free to use our pieces of advice, and you will see that everything will go smoothly 🙂
Advice no. 1:
Many European citizens can get really quickly a free entry permit to Australia through the website: http://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visi/Visi/Visitor-visas/eVisitor-online-application. How does it work? You fill in an application form, and in 24 hours should receive an automatic reply to your mailbox with a permit for a 3-month stay in Australia to be used within one year counted from the day of receiving the permit. In your email there will be mentioned that you should print out the document and present it at the airport, but the customs officers at the airport in Australia will have everything already updated in the system, so you do not need to have anything with you except for the passport.
Advice no. 2:
If you want to rent a car in Australia you need to have with you your original national driving license plus an international one. In Poland you can get the international license in 7 days (the cost is less than 10EUR). No idea how it works in other European countries, please remember to check it well in advance before you plan your trip to Australia.
Car rental will also be impossible without a credit card, since a company where you hire a car has to freeze some amount on your card until the car is returned to a designated place. Credit card is accepted everywhere in Australia: you can use it even in smaller stores in some jerk towns.
Advice no. 3:
Do not exchange money into Australian dollars on the spot, think about it before leaving your country. You may be flaggerbasted by the extremely unfavourable exchange rate applied by Australians when buying their currency, especially at the airport where it goes almost on par with the US dollar! If you have no option to change money well in advance being on a longer trip outside of your country, we advise you to change just a small amount of money and use your credit card most of the time – the way we did it 🙂
Advice no. 4:
The permitted amount of alcohol which you can bring to Australia is 2,25l. The most amazing is, however, a list of things that you can not bring into this country as the Australian government is particular about their flora and fauna which they treat with a special care. You cannot enter Australia with any food: no fruits, vegetables, meat products, dairy products, even buscuits, so if after landing in Australia you will realize that there is some food in your baggage which shouldn’t be there, you have no other choice but either to eat it on the spot, or leave it on an airplane, throw it away, or pay customs fee provided they will let you in with a product you declare (we assume that biscuits could pass after paying a fee). At first we thought it was some sort of a hoax, but after going through the control held at the airport in Perth we didn’t have any doubts about its authenticity. After signing the Immigration Card confirming that you don’t carry any banned products such us: food, plants, even wooden carvings or statues, etc you will be asked questions by one of customs officers regarding carrying illegal stuff in your luggage, then you are directed to a queue, which will be divided into 2 queues: some passengers are asked to go the left side, and others are directed to the right side. The passengers directed to the left side have to open the registered baggage to have it examined thoroughly (LITERALLY), the entire content is taken out of the bag as if they were really looking for something suspicious or illegal. We saw with our own eyes how many people had lots of food thrown into the trash. The passengers directed to the right side were asked to put their bags on the ground in a row standing right beside them and waiting for a dog to come and sniff around. The customs officer needed to check if the dog didn’t skip anything and she deliberately inserted one orange into one baggage. Then the dog was brought once again and without any hesitation stopped at the luggage with a hidden orange in it. We were directed to this second queue having a control with the dog. In our luggage we had only Coke, but apparently there is no problem if you want to carry with you something to drink. It’s also important to know that the control related to food is not only executed at Australian airports but also before taking a ferry to any of the islands: the fact which also stems from the policy of protection of the local fauna and flora. On the other hand, when leaving Australia, you should not have any problems with transporting certain products out of the continent. Taking us as an example, we carried some fruits and cakes in our bags as we were leaving Perth. We think you might find this information useful, as in our hostel we were told that customs officers will not let us in with any food on the plane. It turned out they weren’t right.
Advice no. 5:
Do not be surprised if at an airport from which you board a plane destined to Perth (in our case it was the Malaysian Kuala Lumpur) you will be interviewed by some officers and the decision will be made whether you will be allowed into the aircraft. They ask, of course, what nationality you are, check your passport, ask about the purpose of your visit to Australia, for how long you’re going to stay there and they direct more suspicious individuals for one more control with a higher rank officer.
If you would like to plan your trip to Australia in a more accurate manner (especially WA- Western Australia) and get to know the actual evaluation of costs of staying there, you will probably find the following entry useful for your planning: ”8-day stay in Western Australia for 400AUD per person – how we did it?” 🙂
