It’s a feeling familiar to many — the quiet anxiety of passing through Australian customs and border security. Is everything in your suitcase OK to enter the country? Will those rare Thai Ok Rong mangoes make it through?
According to Nico Padovan, head of Biosecurity Operations at the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, the best thing to do — both for your back pocket and Australia’s biosecurity — is to declare any item you have doubts about.
“The fines [for bringing in prohibited items] start from $420 and go up to hundreds of thousands of dollars plus prison terms of up to 10 years,” he says.
