Thanks navajoa i am thinking of importing small amounts of seed but ive never done this before i might just give it a go had friends that have bought seed from mesa gdns and kores no probs but that was several years ago.

heh heh, yeah, it get's away from you doesn't it ? And they seem cheap, but it all adds up in the end !

I think you'd probably be okay with 53. I don't know if AQIS have an actual criteria they work by, or whether it's just a matter of how busy they are, as to whether they put it aside for a chargeable inspection. Personally I've never been charged for an inspection, but know of others who have !

Don't forget to confirm they're all allowed in on ICON....

Good Luck !

What happens if say out of 50 packets 2 or so contain seed of a species that is not permitted and all the others are? surely you get to keep all the others right?
and the penalty for having not permitted sp.? do you just get a notice saying that the illegal seeds are illegal and have been destroyed blah blah?

They SHOULD just destroy those not allowed and send on the rest with a letter/warning as I understand it. However I don't know how many chances you get and I'd reckon that if there was any hint it was deliberate you'd be in strife...
I assume the charges would be similar to bringing in something through the airport that was allowed - from a few hundred dollars fine to serious legal action I guess.

This is something I've been concerned about recently too. On the few occassions I've bought seed from OS I have received free seeds as well. Now I'm careful to only import seed that is on the allowable imports list but I have no control over the freebies sent and can pretty much assume they aren't checking ICON before they chuck them in... so far so good *taps head* but sooner or later I reckon it will happen... I've started to ask them not to include the freebies now

Probably wise TasV, but if it got really serious I think they'd have to prove that you actually ordered the seed (or you just need to prove you didn't) otherwise people could just get stuff sent to others to get them in trouble...

This has been my correspondance with an AQIS employee over the last few months, thought you might find it interesting:

Quote:

Individual lines or lots of seed with a combined weight of 10 kgs or less is what we call a non-commercial quantity of seed. If you are importing non-commercial quantities of permitted seed in commercial packaging that is botanically labelled though the mail or the airport, the material will be inspected but there is no cost involved. If you are going to import commercial quantities you should contact AQIS in your state for information on inspection costs and arrangements http://www.daff.gov.au/aqis/about/contact/regional Since the species are CITES listed (except the seed) it may be worth while having the relevant part of the CITES agreement highlighted and sent/carried with the seed so there is no confusion about their CITES status when they are inspected.

Interesting indeed...

What were you looking to import, Cooky?

anyone looking at a bulk buy of assorted trichos can count me in

I think I contacted them specifically regarding O. denegrii.

I took from it I can import whatever I like as long as the seeds pass visual inspection, are on the ICON accepted names and the seeds are not CITES protected.

I'm pretty sure that any non habitat seed is not protected under CITES.

Just as a follow up.

I bought 10 different seeds all on the ICON database from Mesagarden. They ended up coming in two different lots as I had to wait for a CITES permit. Both packages were marked identically, and declared as seeds of ornamentals. The first package was opened and inspected, had a brochure from AQIS put in to state they checked it, but didn't remove anything.

The second wasn't even checked.

Both packages did have the seed packets numbered, and a printout stating what numbers refererred to which species.

RE: the CITES permit. Some seed does require a CITES permit, on Mesagardens list it is marked with a #. A permit is $10, whether you buy 5 seeds or 5000.

I've had excellent germination of what I've sowed so far as well.