17 April 2020
Who does this notice affect?
Importers of animals, including horses, cats, dogs, hatching eggs, pigeons, alpacas and bees.
This temporary change is relevant to importers of live animals who are required to use Australia’s Post Entry Quarantine (PEQ) facility at Mickleham.
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the movement of airfreight in multiple countries.
While Departmental biosecurity operations at the Australian border will continue in accordance with our usual service standards, the operation of services at PEQ will be impacted.
Staffing levels will be reduced because of physical distancing requirements.
The volume of animals exported to Australia and in turn spending a mandatory period at Australia’s state of the art quarantine facility at Mickleham is falling.
Interim arrangements
The following interim arrangements will apply due to reduced staffing levels and fewer animals being imported. As the COVID-19 situation evolves, import restrictions will be reviewed and updated accordingly. The availability of testing facilities in Australia is also crucial to these shipments:
- Dogs and Cats – reduced capacity due to vastly reduced imports in coming months – future availability of flights will limit the restart of exports.
- Horses – reduced capacity with combined shipments possible. Flights, and logistics around travelling grooms may also impact consignments.
- Avian – hatching egg consignments can continue subject to logistics in the exporting country and flights.
- Pigeon shipments – shipments will not be accepted prior to 1 July 2020.
- Bees and Ruminants – shipments will not be accepted prior to 1 September 2020.
Further information
If you have questions or need further information, you can contact our Import Services team on:
- Email at imports@aff.gov.au
- Phone (from within Australia): 1800 900 090
- Phone (from outside Australia): + 61 3 8318 6700
Also visit the department’s COVID-19 information hub for current information and advice on changes to our services due to COVID-19.