Fumigation of wooden furniture

[dk-aus]

Hi, We are moving to Perth on the 1st. of August and have been instructed that all wooden furniture needs to be fumigated before customs will allow us to take these into AU. Does anyone know the costs of this, and if it can be done upon arrival or if we have to do it before leaving Denmark. I've been in contact with the australian customs office in Brussels, and they did not have any knowledge regarding costs of this, as commercial companies are carrying out this service.

Kind regards
Martin

[Dolly]

Hi Martin,

Wooden furniture (to my knowledge) doesn't have to be fumigated unless it shows signs of having or have had woodworm. It the piece is woodworm free and has a lacquer/varnish on it, it's fine.

Importing Timber Furniture and Wooden Items - DAFF

Moving/Emigrating to Australia - DAFF

Dolly

[sgilli3]

I was under the impression that it is done by customs in Oz, only once the container has been checked, as not all timber needs to be fumigated.

You removal company should explain it to you.

When we had our last moved back to Oz, all of our timber furniture was fine, and we had a few items which needed to be fumigated or destroyed (choice was ours).We decided to have them destroyed.

[TGM]

Even if you did have it fumigated (because it has woodworm for instance) that doesn't mean that they won't ask for it be done when you get to Oz, this because they've got no way of telling how well the job was done, or if it was done by a reputable treatment company. Don't waste your money.

We've lugged wooden furniture from the UK to NZ to Oz and never had any problems with any of it, including wooden garden table and chairs, gazebos, market umrellas and a whole host of other stuff. We cleaned off the outdoors items, gave it a quick rub over with sandpaper if it needed it and and a coat of wood preservative but even untreated wood (internal Ikea pine shelving) got through ok.