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Comment by vazamb | Hacker News Reader

No shit. A friend of mine brought an apple from Sydney to Perth. 500 dollar fine. Yes, from within Australia to another place in Australia.

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> An Apple from Sydney to Perth

Wait, what? There's no screening or security on domestic arrivals in Australia. There's no customs. There's no signage warning about this. This is the first I've ever heard of this and I have trouble believing this.

Can't speak for Perth, but flights into Tasmania absolutely go through another round of biosecurity screening.

There is quarantine, though:

http://www.interstatequarantine.org.au/travellers/interstate...

Driving or flying to or from WA, you will see inspectors and dogs.

Huh that's so interesting. I've done plenty of flying along Eastern Australia so I never had a reason to presume there was anything more over in WA.

Thanks.

Every eastern state airport I've ever seen has fruit bins at the gate or on the airbridge, and there is frequently an on-board announcement near TOD that some states prohibit bringing in fruit.

They 100% don't have disposal bins at Sydney T3, nor do I remember them at Melbourne or Brisbane. I've spent a lot of time in that airport, sometimes without even flying and I've never seen anything other than just regular bins and the "oops I forgot this bottle of water" before security.

Water and liquids are permitted through security on domestic flights from domestic airport terminals. No reason to dump your bottle of water.

http://travelsecure.infrastructure.gov.au/onboard/liquids-ae...

there is frequently an on-board announcement near TOD that some states prohibit bringing in fruit

Yup, was about to mention this. I did Sydney to Perth a couple of weeks ago & Qantas made that announcement close to landing. In particular, they mention not to bring honey into Western Australia, and to talk to a flight attendant if you were carrying honey.

I do remember seeing signage (somewhere) in Perth on arrival, but I don't remember seeing any disposal bins.

I live in Launceston Tasmania, there's a fruit bin on the way in to the airport from the tarmac. Nearly every time I've been to the airport here there is a Beagle getting about on the luggage carousel.

Now that I think about it, that dog might not be there entirely for fruit. There was a bit of a spate of people bringing ice (meth-amphetamine) in through checked baggage a couple years ago. Who does that?

Beagles usually are used for smelling foods (vegetables and meats), not drugs.

Unfortunately the beagles are mostly gone from Hobart airport. There's just the one now, I'm told, and s/he wasn't on duty last I flew down. Family that fly through there regularly all say they havnt seen it on duty much either.

This made my paranoid checking of whether my chosen brand of fruit-oil containing shower gel would be permitted kind of redundant.

For somewhere there's not supposed to be fruit fly, we sure saw a lot of fruit flies.

There's similar if you go north of Brisbane. Turns out, having a ridiculously sparse population is also a good defence against the spread of plant diseases.

There's actually signs somewhere north of BNE telling truckies that they can't take bananas past that point, for example.

Does California still have the agricultural prohibitions? I can remember the fruit fly traffic inspections in the '70s.

I've also been sniffed by a Dept. of Agriculture beagle coming back from Puerto Rico.

I-10 from AZ still has an inspection station that seemed to wave through most passenger vehicles.

Same in South Australia, mostly to prevent the spread of Fruit Fly (confined to eastern part of Australia). WA and SA rely economically on fruit plantations, so the noxious fruit fly could cause grave damage to local economies.

Don't travel with fruit in Australia, its the height of selfishness.

What in the world? Why is this?

Diseases in one part of the country could spread to another. Australia and NZ have strict biosecurity because their isolation means they missed out on a lot of diseases that affect produce and animals in other parts of the world.

Western Australia is separated from farms in the rest of the country by ~1000 km of desert, meaning there are various pests in the rest of the country that they don't want to see introduced, and thus enforce strict quarantine measures: https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/importing-animals/quarantine-wa-...

FWIW, California also has agricultural quarantine measures, they're just much more half-assed.

Hawaii does not play around with its own agricultural (et al) quarantines. Every time you fly into the state, you must declare items on a special state checklist, for exactly the same reasons.

Hawaii also (?) checks for agricultural products when you leave the islands:

http://www.govisithawaii.com/2009/07/16/be-prepared-for-agri...

Because there are crop diseases endemic in one part of the country that aren't present in another. Try searching for "Nevada California fruit" if that's closer to home.

Australia is an island so it has a fairly unique biodiversity. For international flights bringing in fruits is a concern since it can introduce pests that don't otherwise exist in Australia.

Australia is also a very large island, and the biodiversity of the east coast is very different to that of the west coast, so the same concerns apply. If you drive along the highways between states you'll see signs telling you to dispose of your fruit.

http://www.interstatequarantine.org.au/

We take protecting our agriculture very seriously. You don't want an outbreak of something in one state to spread to another.

It kinda makes sense. We're so isolated geographically, when something happens in other parts of the world, we have a very good chance of protecting ourselves.

I believe Australia actually has the oldest vineyards in the world. Something took out the vineyards everywhere else in the world.

Fruit flies.

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