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AA Education Service through their website offers clients the chance to see possible flights with a search engine at http://flight-to-australia.org

AA Education Agents in Australia and New Zealand would be willing to help because that is a part of their service that AA Education Service provides. AA Education Service is the one stop shop for all the needs associated with travelling to Australia for the adventure of your life.
 

ENTERING AUSTRALIA
by Daniel Pascoe

The first thing you have to know about entering Australia, is that Australia is not as backward as many people think. So you will encounter the same sort of security set up that you would anywhere in the developed world. And on top of this, Australia has some of the strictest customs, quarantine laws and guidelines in the world.
I should know, because on my first trip back from China as a young person I was greeted by the officers of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service with a beagle who wanted to sniff my shoes because of the dirt on the soles of them that had attached to the heels after I spent an afternoon walking around a wheat farm in Northern China. They were not happy until I had given them a reasonable enough explanation for the state of my shoes.
And, I am an Australian citizen!

So, the point I am trying to make here is, they are painstaking and utterly determined to do their job well. So, be patient. I know you are tired.


WEATHER CONDITIONS

As for weather, it is not unreasonable to assume that you will enter in to Australia on a sunny day. But, remember we are in the southern hemisphere, so our seasons are the other way around and Australia can get cold. Even subzero on the coldest days of winter in the southern states. So, make sure you know the temperature before you depart. Because you may be dressed for summer fun and find you are dealing with the brutal onslaught of a South Easterly bluster. So, make sure you know what season you are in before you come down and pack accordingly!


POINTS OF ENTRY

There are many points of entry in Australia, but the three big ones are Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. All three of these cities have large international and domestic airports and are very modern and have excellent facilities. Where you see roving patrols of Beagles (food, plant, and animal material) and Labradors (drugs and prohibited items) handled by customs officers as they go around sniffing at people’s luggage looking for prohibited and restricted substances and items. Like most airport terminals from around the world they are quite lively. While the other points of entry are Perth, Darwin, Hobart, and Adelaide. Many people coming from Africa enter Australia through Perth, while people coming in from Europe, the Americas, and Asia tend to use the big three. Qantas, Singapore Airlines, JAL, Cathay Pacific and a host of other airlines service Australia’s international and domestic air travel needs. These airlines have a long and distinguished
 history of safety and offer passengers reasonable prices on airfares. If you go to the web sometime before your departure to Australia you can get even better deals, but you have to book some months ahead of schedule though.


SURVIVING AUSTRALIA

One of the first things you will notice about Australia is that it is not like the advertisements and the movies. Although those stereotypes do exist in the larger community and you will encounter them from time to time enriching your experience of Australia. But, initially your concern will be with knowing some rudimentary things about the culture like:

• English is the language of the country and you need to be proficient in English to affectively conduct yourself in Australian business, culture, education and society.
• There are 22 million Australians and not all of them are white. We have one of the largest percentages of citizens born overseas in the world. We are only outranked by Israel in this achievement. Even America and Canada do not have the amount of foreign born nationals per capita that Australia does.
• Many Australians love sport and if you are sports nut yourself, than this is a good point of entry for you into the local culture. Cricket is our traditional game and is played across the country. While Rugby League and Rugby Union are only played in the Northern states and territories of Queensland, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory. Australian Rules, on the other hand is played across the country, but its spiritual home is in the southern states of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Since the 1980’s Australian’s have taken a shine to sports from the US like basketball, baseball, and American football. But, they are no competition in popularity or cultural esteem as the traditional sporting codes mentioned above are.
• Australian’s are urbanites, as opposed to the myth of a people leaving free in the bush. 90% of Australians make their home in the city and live a life very similar to that of a European or an American. And the majority of Australian’s live on the eastern seaboard in the three big cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and the smaller satellite cities that hover around the larger capitals. Many Australian’s have never seen the outback and many do not want too, believing that Australian identity is more in tune with the beach and sea than the dead heart of the country.
• So, now you know a little bit about the reality of Australia, let’s deal with the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service!

 

AUSTRALIAN CUSTOMS and BORDER PROTECTION SERVICE


Here is a tip for you before you get off the plane.

Australian Customs are a lot easier to deal with if you have the appropriate documentation ready before you meet with them. People who have not been functional in doing this have waited upwards of three hours to get out of ‘customs’ because they were not suitably prepared to give the documentation to the officer and answer the appropriate questions.


And, what is the appropriate documentation?

Passport / Visa / Incoming Passenger Card or (IPC)
The IPC is the most important piece of documentation that you must have ready for a customs officer to see because it has all the items and materials that you need to declare to Australian Customs written on it. Australian Customs advises people on their website to declare everything in their possession. The reason why Australian Customs is so tough on this matter is because Australia is such a unique eco-system that it needs a high level of protection from potentially dangerous foreign pests that could destroy the agricultural sector of the country.
And, you don’t want to go down in history as the person who destroyed Australia do you?
I thought not.

So, make sure everything is declared, and if you are in doubt about anything, declare it anyway. Just to be on the safe side.
Here is a list of prohibited and restricted items that you must declare: firearms, Food, plants, animal and biological goods, medicines, performance and image enhancing drugs, and currency in Australian or foreign notes and coinage over $10 000 dollars.


QUARANTINE

After you have given the officer the right documentation with everything you need to declare, you will move onto ‘Quarantine’ when your baggage will be x-rayed by officers and you may have a little talk with an officer about certain items in your luggage. It is at this point that you may encounter the Beagles and/or Labradors as they go about their duty. Officers will advise you not to pat or try and interact with the animals because they are working. They get cranky when you play with the dogs.
So, after you have gone through this ordeal you can then enter Australia proper.
So, the best tips I can give you for dealing with Australian Customs are:

• Complete you Incoming Passenger Card (IPC) on the plane.
• Have the appropriate documentation ready for the officers when you get of the plane.
• And, last but not least: Declare everything!

 

CURRENCY

You can bring currency of up to $10 000 into Australia without having to declare it to Australian Customs. The law stipulates that you can bring any amount of foreign or Australian currency into the country that you like. But, anything over $10 000 has to be declared. And if you are bringing in promissory notes, travellers cheques, money orders and postal orders you may be asked by a customs officer to fill in a Bearer Negotiable Instruments (BNI) form. So, keep this in mind when you are bringing in currency and cheques and other financial documentation into the country.


GETTING AROUND

So, now you are out of the airport and have entered the real Australia. If you are an English speaker, Australia is an easy country to navigate. Although, if you are flying domestically you need to take into account the time it takes to fly around the country. Australia has a small population, but we are not Belgium. And, it can take you a day to get from Brisbane to Perth.  But Public transport (trains, buses, taxis) in most areas of Australia are first rate and many of the transport hubs are around the universities. So, it is often quite easy to become very knowledgeable about the local public transport and use it at its most efficient.

But, on your first day in the country the university that you are attending will probably pick you up using one of their shuttle services. But, from there you will have to get to know the public transport system if you do not have the funding for a car in whatever city or town you are studying in.
WELCOME TO OZ!

For more information visit our website: Flight to Australia