Foreign Office issues 'strict' warning to anyone wanting to travel to Australia

If you want to travel to another country, there's always going to be a plethora of rules, restrictions and regulations you've got to follow.

It's a simple process - you've got to jump through however many hoops each country holds up for you or you're not getting in, either that or the airport bin is going to be seeing a lot of action before you board your flight.

Anyone heading off to the EU will know there's a bunch of new things to be aware of after certain political developments of which we will not speak.

Meanwhile, if you're wanting to head further afield to somewhere like Australia then you'd better make sure you're clued up on all the goings on and rules to follow.

Of course if you're planning a trip to Australia this summer remember that you'd be travelling to the southern hemisphere where things would flip around and you'd actually be visiting Australia in what is their winter.

That's a nice country, would be a shame if someone accidentally introduced unfamiliar plants and animals to the ecosystem. (Getty Stock Photo)

Still, it'd be nice to get away to that far off land of sun, sea, sand, spiders and snakes.

Before you head off the Foreign Office would like to remind you that Australia has 'strict quarantine rules to keep out pests and diseases'.

To make this work, you'll need to fill out something called an Incoming Passenger Card and declare any goods which might break these rules.

Food, animal products and plant material all need to be declared, and plant material does include wood so you'd need to be careful if your holiday is actually a covert excuse to transport timber to the other side of the world.

If you don't declare what the Aussies want you to mention then you could find your belongings confiscated and destroyed.

On top of that, if you'll be asked to declare whether you've been to a rural area or been near or in contact with farm animals in the past 30 days.

Never again. (Fox)

The Australians take all this stuff very seriously, and it's no surprise considering the ecological devastation they suffered in the 90s after Bart Simpson released his pet bullfrog and before long, a horde of 'chazzwazzers' were destroying everything in sight.

This might all sound like a bit of a rigmarole but it's done to clamp down on the possibility of pests and diseases entering the country.

Wherever in the world you're planning to travel on your holidays, it's best if you stay up to date on all the latest travel rules, as you definitely don't want to get caught out.

Topics: Travel, Australia, Holiday

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker