Bringing Your Pet to Australia
Can I bring my pet dog/cat/rabbit?
Rabbit? No! Australia is not keen on rabbits, but they definitely are a pet loving nation with dogs and cats at the top of the list. Thousands of pet owners bring their dogs and cats with them when they migrate to Australia, 
but….
Is it a good idea?
We brought our pet dog Baggy with us, but it wasn’t cheap. But had we left him behind, we would have paid a bigger price. My wife and daughter both dote on him and, in the early stages, it can be quite tough adapting to your new Australian surroundings.
You’ve said goodbye to your friends and family, you’ve left your hometown, your children have had to leave their friends and their school behind, so if you can help it, don’t leave the dog behind (or cat!).
All dogs and cats coming into Australia need to spend a period of time in quarantine. Quarantine is run by AQIS, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service. They, in turn, are part of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) and they are all part of the Australian Government.
How long your pet will spend in quarantine depends on which country you are coming from, but, for example, it’s just one month when coming from the UK.
To find out more…..
Visit daff.gov.au/aqis/cat-dogs
…which covers cats and dogs. For other pets…..
Visit daff.gov.au/aqis/cat-dogs/other
I regret to inform you, that at the time of writing, spiders and snakes cannot be imported into Australia. Perhaps it’s because we already got some. Hehe!
More useful links:
When we brought our dog with us, we arranged for somebody to go in to the quarantine station to see him regularly and take him for walks. But it wasn’t easy to organise. Since we’ve lived here, my wife has started a company that does just that……
Visit DogWalks.com.au
The company has now been established since the middle of 2008 and she has made hundreds and hundreds of dogs and cats very happy. You can see all of their smiling faces in her photo gallery here….
Visit DogWalks Gallery
If you have any question about bringing your pets to Australia, please feel free to send my wife, Karen, and email directly through her website.
And…..
You can read Baggy’s Story here.
…and even more about Baggy here.
I also have a post about rabbits in Australia.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Bob,
Quick one for you, how much did it cost to bring poor old Baggy out to oz (rip), we have just had a quote of £3750 excluding quarantine ??? surely they having a laugh, our whole flight tickets for 5 of us doesn’t amass to that ! what company did you use or can possibly recommend. Or is it a simple case of shut up and let the moths out of the wallet. good grief lol.
Yes, sounds about right. We paid over £3000, I’m afraid the love of your dog needs to be as deep as your pockets can possibly go. Check out my post about bringing your dog to Australia for the full story.
I am an Aussie that worked for a pets freight forwarder as a dog washer
in the UK for several years. It costs so much because UK freight forwarders primarily use one airline as the benchmark for quoting. Why? Because they operate in an environment that adds mark-ups using percentages. Therefore there is less money in it for them using the cheapest airline. The true cost of an invoice consist of: airline rate per kg; various unavoidable taxes and ancillary charges; and the forwarders mark-up. How much the primary airline charge? It is somewhere near the old (but different to) IATA rates per kg (note: IATA rates are now illegal in Oz). Who is robbing you blind, the airline or freight forwarder? I’d suggest both. The primary airline is perceived as offering the best service. In reality, the freight forwarder does the legwork to the Heathrow Animal Reception Centre (for example), then onto the airline’s warehouse (most likely outsourced and shard by other airlines), then on to the aircraft for transport in the tail. Similar story in Oz but with roughly a months delay. The service doesn’t vary between the biggest airlines, they don’t do much but they get a lions share of your money. I knew a small pets freight forwarder who spent 3 months skiing in the Alps every year (think of that what you may!). My advice is to get 4 quotes (4 airlines) from 2 different freight forwarders that includes breakdowns of ancillary taxes and charges (they wont tell you what the airline charges nor what their mark-up is). If they resist this type of quote state something like “I only use these airlines” or “religious reasons”. It may take a long of time but the cost saving could result in you being able to afford air conditioning in your new Oz home! Finally, if the destination port is on the East Coast you may find that the quotes different between MEL, SYD and BNE (airlines charge different rates) – ask the authorities if it is okay if you can use another city than the one you live, then go with the cheapest city and do an overnight drive for the pick-up of your lovely furry family member. With so many Poms leaving England for Oz the freight forwarders and airlines see this business as a cash cow. Enough said.
Dear Annon,
Thank you very much for the words of wisdom, unfortunately time is pressing and we have little choice now to shop around. however we have found a very good and honest company in the new forest (pet air uk) who, to be honest, have been pretty upfront and straight with us. Its a pain in the bum but as i said before, if you love the dog its gotta come and pet air have been very reasonable and honest ! they deducted almost £1000 from our agreed contract after we went with the dog and sorted out his measurements, we have been given a quote of £2805, expensive i know but not as near as expensive as the other 99% of companies in the uk, my dog will fly with BA or Quantas…….does that really mean anything……….china or plastic, you decide lol x
Dear Sir or Madam, my son has dog, golden retriever in Sri Lanka. He is planning to move to Sydney, and I hear dog needs to be quarantined for one month in Singapore. Any idea how much will cost for the whole process?
I have no idea what quarantine will cost in Singapore, but the dog will also need to spend a further month in quarantine in Sydney after that. I do know that will cost about $30 a day. Hope that helps.
Cookie (our dog) will be quarantined in Sydney, is it possible she can be sent to Brisbane. We were told she had to go to Sydney and stay there for 30 days.
Yes, Sydney is the closest quarantine station to Brisbane. I would recommend http://www.jetpets.com.au for onward transport, contact Melanie Byers, she will look after you.
hey bob, my name is johny and im from dublin. me and my girl friend lynda have been following your blog (which is fantastic by the way bro) and we were wondering about the opportunities available for an irish builder with ten years experience in brisbane? i have a brother in melbourne and he says id be mad to go anywhere but melbourne but i have a dream in my head of year round sunshine. (hopeful i know haha). We are set to fly over in september of this year initially on a working holiday visa to check the place out with a hope of maybe being sponsored for a second year if i can source some decent work as my brother has done before me he is now there roughly three and a half years and says he is never leaving. I know melbourne is booming at the moment but im sure its not the only place and brisbane sounds like my kind of place. I am 29 and lynda is 27 and we would be looking to rent a unit or house close enough to a beach but not out in the sticks could you suggest any areas in brisbane that wouldnt be too expensive but still fits our criteria? Bob you are a saint and a scholar and if you could help me out with sum of the questions i have asked i will be forever in your debt. thankyou very much, yours sincerely,
john ennis.
Hi John
I don’t know enough about the building industry to know whether you would easily find work here in Brisbane, but I do know that this city isn’t exactly booming at the moment and there aren’t a lot of new buildings going up at the moment. Not sure what it’s like down Melbourne, but most people tell me that Perth is the city that booming right now.
The other thing you need to know is that Brisbane isn’t really on the beach. Have a look at my page about Brisbane for more information.
Good luck John!
I also think Perth is the place for people with construction skills. There is lot of construction work going there as the state has the resouces from mining.
thanks guys vey helpful.
Hey Bob,
I’m an animal behaviourist and trainer. I was wondering if there are pet trainers and behaviourists in Oz? In UK dog training is a big deal, is it so in Oz?
Did Baggy cope with the heat in Oz? My lab struggles in UK summer! May have to rehome if we decided to emmigrate.
Thanks
Hi Jan
Well, pets are big business in Australia, so I don’t see why you shouldn’t do well as a pet trainer here, although I do see more people advertising pet grooming and pet care than I do pet training.
Baggy was the same, we were concerned that he wouldn’t cope with the heat. But when he got here, he actually coped very well.
Hi my husband has recently been offered a job in Perth & I am just looking into whether we would be able to bring our dogs with us, we have 6! (I am a dog groomer/microchip implanter). 3 are chihuahuas, we have an elderly border collie & 2 husky crosses who were originally from a rescue situation. My concerns are obviously to do with our big dogs as the collie is 11now and obviously our huskys dont do well in heat. I’m facing a heartbreaking decision of whether it would be better to rehome them as I am not sure if it would be cruel to move them such a distance or to somewhere so hot. Any advice please? Are there any huskys in Perth?! Thanks, Lara
Hi Lara
We also had similar concerns for our chocolate lab Baggy, who was 10 years old when we brought him out here and struggled in the UK heat, not that we had much of it. But he was fine when he got here, in fact he enjoyed lazing around in the sun. He adapted very well.
We also know some people not far from us here in Brisbane who own a couple of huskies, they are fine in this heat. The Brisbane climate is not much different from that of Perth.
Also, my wife runs a company called dogwalks, and she tells me that all kinds of breeds come into Australia, they all seem to adapt very well to the heat. So that won’t be a problem, paying for them all to get here is probably your biggest worry