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Get your import approval before the car sails. Not while it's at sea, not on arrival. Australia will not release a vehicle without one, and storage charges start immediately. Budget £1,800–£4,800 before Australian duty and GST, and 9–19 weeks door-to-door. Then budget patience for the cleaning standard, which is the strictest on Earth.

Why does import approval have to come first?

Australia treats vehicle imports as a controlled activity. You apply through ROVER, the Department of Infrastructure's online system, and you must hold the approval before the vehicle is shipped. Under the Road Vehicle Standards legislation the approval you need is usually a concessional Register of Approved Vehicles (RAV) entry approval — older guidance calls it a Vehicle Import Approval.

Honest answer: this is the single most expensive mistake people make. A car that arrives without approval cannot simply be cleared late. You may face storage costs while it sits, re-export at your expense, or in the worst case destruction of the vehicle. None of those are cheap and none of them are quick.

The most common route for people emigrating is the personal import pathway. The headline condition is straightforward: you need to have owned and used the vehicle overseas for at least 12 months before the application. Both parts matter. Ownership alone is not enough, and neither is use on someone else's registration.

There are other pathways, including concessional and specialist routes for older or unusual vehicles, and eligibility rules change. Check your specific case against the official guidance at infrastructure.gov.au/vehicles/imports before you commit money to freight.

How strict is Australian quarantine, really?

Strict. Genuinely, memorably strict.

Australia is an island continent with agriculture worth protecting and very little tolerance for imported pests and soil. Every arriving vehicle is inspected by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. They are not glancing at it. They are looking underneath it, inside the wheel arches, in the spare wheel well, in the boot carpet seams, in the air intake and inside the cabin filter housing.

What fails an inspection:

• Soil and mud. Anywhere. Chassis rails and suspension components are the classic offenders.
• Plant matter. One leaf in the boot. Grass seeds in the door shuts. A twig in the engine bay.
• Insects and egg cases. Including things you would never notice.
• Animal residue. Dog hair in the boot counts. So does straw from a horsebox trip three years ago.
• Food debris. The crisps under the rear seat are now a biosecurity matter.

The fix is a professional steam clean before shipping, inside and underneath, done by someone who cleans cars for export rather than someone who valets them for resale. It is a different job. Underbody, engine bay, wheel arches, boot, carpets, and every cavity a seed could hide in.

If the vehicle fails on arrival, it is cleaned in Australia at your cost, then re-inspected, also at your cost, while accruing storage. That is the expensive way to learn this lesson.

Asbestos

Australia has a total ban on asbestos, and it applies to every imported vehicle regardless of age or value. Older cars carry the highest risk in brake pads, clutch components and gaskets, but aftermarket parts can put asbestos into a modern car too, so "it's a 2015 car" is not an answer. The border does not accept assurances. Expect to need manufacturer-backed evidence or laboratory testing, and budget for replacing parts you cannot certify. Pre-2004 vehicles should assume testing is required.

Stink bugs

Between roughly September and April, Australia runs a seasonal biosecurity measure against the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug. Vehicles shipped from affected countries in that window generally need approved offshore treatment (heat or fumigation) before or during transit. It adds cost and it adds days. Two things have to be true for mandatory treatment: you ship inside the window, and your country of export is on the target risk country list. Countries on the emerging risk list get random onshore inspection instead. Both lists are reviewed annually, so confirm the UK's current status and the season dates with your shipper before you budget for this. If your move is flexible, shipping outside the window is quietly cheaper.

What does it actually cost?

These are typical market ballparks, 2026. Your quote confirms the real number, because route, port pair, vehicle size and season all move it.

On the Australian tax side: passenger vehicles generally attract around 5% import duty, with 10% GST calculated on the customs value plus duty plus international transport and insurance. Expensive vehicles above the Luxury Car Tax threshold can also attract LCT, which is a meaningful extra layer. Thresholds and rates change with each Australian financial year, and concessions exist that may reduce or remove duty in some personal-import circumstances. Treat every number here as indicative and confirm your position with the Australian Border Force or a licensed customs broker before you budget.

For a wider view of how freight pricing works across destinations, see our car shipping cost calculator. If you are still deciding how the car travels, RoRo vs container shipping covers the trade-off properly.

Why does it take three months or more?

Because the sea leg is only part of it. A realistic door-to-door timeline looks like this:

• Import approval: 2–6 weeks. Before anything else moves. Times vary with volume.
• Booking and collection: 1–2 weeks. Getting the car cleaned and to the port for a specific sailing.
• Sea transit: 5–8 weeks. UK to Australian east coast, typically via the Suez or the Cape depending on the service and current routing. Some services tranship, which adds time.
• Quarantine and customs: 1–3 weeks. Inspection slots, clearance, and any remediation.
• Final delivery and compliance: a few days upwards. Getting it from the port to you, then to state registration.

Add those up and the honest range is 9 to 19 weeks, with most moves landing around 12. Sailings get cancelled, ports get congested, and inspection slots fill. Anyone quoting you six weeks door-to-door is quoting a best case, not a plan.

What are the steps, in order?

1. Check eligibility. Confirm your pathway and that you meet the 12-month owned-and-used condition if importing personally.
2. Apply through ROVER. Get the Vehicle Import Approval in hand.
3. Sort asbestos evidence. Especially for older vehicles. Test or replace in the UK.
4. Book the sailing. RoRo or container, with a real sailing date.
5. Steam clean to export standard. Keep the cleaning certificate and photographs.
6. Deliver to port. Empty the car completely. No personal effects in RoRo.
7. Insure the crossing. Declare a realistic value.
8. Clear on arrival. Quarantine inspection, then customs, duty and GST.
9. Comply and register. Any required modifications, then registration in your state.

Where does RollShip fit?

RollShip is a UK booking service for international car shipping. We are new, run by people with real UK freight-forwarding operations experience, and we are deliberately not pretending to be a fleet operator.

What we do: you tell us the vehicle, the route and the timing at our quote form, and we come back within 24 hours with itemised quotes from vetted UK specialists. Itemised matters on an Australia move, because the difference between a cheap quote and an expensive one is usually the lines that were left out. Cleaning. Insurance. Destination charges.

You pay on confirmation, not before. Our booking fee is £99 while we are launching, rising to £199, and it appears as a visible line on your quote rather than buried in the freight rate.

We do not file your ROVER application for you. That is your approval, in your name, and you should hold it directly. We will tell you plainly if your timeline does not work, which is more useful than a fast yes.

Shipping something older or rarer? Our classic car shipping guide covers the extra care that route needs.