Shipping bike from USA to Melbourne for a 3-4 year stay
 

Hi all,

I may be getting transferred to Melbourne from the USA for work for a 3-4 year stint. I have two bikes that are very well modded and either would be perfect for commuting and exploring AU while there. It’s a bit of an awkward amount of time since it’s a bit long to leave the bikes unused at home in the USA, but also longer than a temporary trip which creates issues with permitting etc.

Would it be worth importing? Or should I just take my lumps and buy a bike in AU? I get the sense that vehicles are quite expensive in AU.


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Bringing a bike into Australia requires one of two options:
1: Bring it in on a carnet - which means you must leave within a reasonable period of time - and 3-4 years isn't even close to a "reasonable" time, they're thinking under a year - there may be a specific period but can't think what it is at the moment.
2: Bring it in as "settlers effects" which means you are immigrating! (We did that and it worked fine and was easy. I only had to swap out the headlight to accommodate riding on the left instead of right, and pass the safety test.)

Sorry, three options - where's my head at? Oh, over there....
3: Import it - you won't like the costs - first you have to ship it there, think roughly $1000-2000. Then you have to pay the duties and taxes. And THAT'S why bikes in Oz are more expensive. Oh year, you'll probably want to ship it home too. More $$

Since neither of those sounds like your plan, I'd recommend just buying in Australia. IMPORTANT: You said that bikes were expensive in Australia. However, when you SELL IT you are also selling it HIGH.

Therefore the actual cost of ownership isn't a heck of a lot different than anywhere else.
Hope that helps!

The various government departments in Australia (State and Federal) seem to all have made it their sole purpose in life to discourage the importation (permanent or otherwise) of foreign registered vehicles.

Carnet importation isn't too bad, but you are limited to how long you are allowed to do that for. Not sure of the precise period, but it's way less than the four years you mention.

Personal importation as a migrant (or temporary employment visa holder? Not sure) is a viable option, and is the best option to import a modified bike without getting it past a compliance inspection. If the bike is heavily modded, you will need to get engineering sign-off on it too if you go this way.

If the vehicle is pre-1989, importation is a load easier, but that is probably no help to you.

Other people may know better, but you're far better off buying in-country in my opinion.
Good luck.

As everyone has said, just buy a used local bike. (bikesales.com.au)

Mezo.

That rule has changed now, the rolling 25-year rule replaces the previous pre-1989 rule.

https://www.carsales.com.au/editoria...o%20or%20more.

Mezo.

Well that makes perfect sense and is eminently sensible.
:clap:Therefore, this decision MUST have come from someone outside of government.

As others have said, a carnet isn't going to work for two reasons:

1) It's a maximum of a year (you can extend for another year in some countries, however I'm sure that Australia limits the carnet to a year).

2) A carnet is for visitors, not residents, and you're going to be resident.

The "settler's effects" option might work, however you still have to pay for shipping, and recent enquiry has revealed that shipping costs have gone up a lot in the last year.

I'd buy a new bike in Australia; apart from other benefits this will avoid the potential for problems with maintenance, even if your bikes are standard and sold in Australia. When we travelled in Australia we found that because our vehicle was not originally registered there (i.e., had not been imported into the country by the manufacturer) we had problems because it didn't show up on the dealerships' database - i.e., as far as they were concerned, it didn't exist. This was fixed, with some helpful work by Arnott's in Sydney, but was somewhat inconvenient until they managed to solve the problem and get our vehicle onto the database.

Just to add to your problems mate, if you do try and import your bike MUST comply with Australian Design Rules. A US bike will not. Several items at the very least will be required, including, orange turn signals, headlight that dips left, a KLM speedo, a compliant exhaust, right down to stuff like an Unleaded Fuel only sticker on the tank.

Buy in OZ and then flog it when you leave mate.