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I have given my grandaughter a wooden doll house and little table and chairs. My son and his partner are emigrating to Australia.

Can they take children's wooden indoor toys to Australia?

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Yes you can, but they must be declared upon entry.

Once declared one of a few things will happen:

  1. They may be asked where they obtained them from, and if they're not travelling from a high risk country and you bought them from a reputable source, i.e. a toy store, they might be waved through without visual inspection.
  2. A visual or X-ray inspection may be required, in which case they need to be pulled out and handed over. This is done to look for borer holes or larvae inside the toy. If nothing's found, they're get them back.
  3. If something of concern is found, generally they will be taken away for fumigation and quarantine and can be picked up at a later date. IIRC this is done at the cost of the person bringing in the wooden objects.

It's possible that they might be destroyed completely but I haven't heard of that happening despite bringing objects falling into all three steps at different times.

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    It's worth noting that wooden furniture and toys will generally be made of treated wood, which will be fine. Customs is looking for untreated wood susceptible to insect infestation. But in any case, always declare.
    – lambshaanxy
    Dec 4, 2014 at 21:52
  • Antiques too are subject to inspections seeing as older wood has a higher chance of harbouring termites and the like.
    – JoErNanO ♦
    Dec 5, 2014 at 12:33
  • Any idea if things are handled differently, when importing your whole household (from Europe) through - let's say - a container shipment :) ?
    – Chris
    Aug 11, 2015 at 8:20
  • I don't have first hand experience there, but my understanding is that since you probably won't be present when that passes through quarantine they're more likely to jump straight to #2 and #3 when they see the wooden items on the bill of goods.
    – dlanod
    Aug 11, 2015 at 22:30

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