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Importing to Australia
When I was given my last rights to leave China it was a devastating blow to my newly acquired way of life, here I was being asked to leave the beloved country that had introduced me to the Chang! What was I to do now that I could not ride my bike without helmet and without the free convictions of an innocent man?
Enough bullshit, I was devastated! I immediately looked in to exporting my Chang back to my home land of Australia. Basically it went something like this;
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You must apply for an importation certificate before exporting your bike.
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The bike must be older than 15 years to miss import duty and miss having to comply with the Australian Design Rules (ADR) which is basically the Australian road regulation checks.
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Certain parts of Australia do not allow left-hand bikes to be registered on the road.
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You pay the shipping agent to get the bike back to home land.
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You pay the local BMW bike shop to go out to value your pride and joy. (If I ever lay my hands on that son of a bitch, I'll kill him! - Although he did what he was told and that was to value the bike at around AUD$1500.00) his comments regarding, "a crude copy of a BMW" hurt!
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You take the bike and the import certificate to the local road transport office for inspection.
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They look at your bike ask you lots of questions about the girls you met in China and then if all is in order pass your bike to be registered in Australia.
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You then go to the front registration desk and purchase the rego plates, the assistant asks you whether you have the official registration document from China, you crap yourself and say no, they say that you must have this to register the bike, you say what if I can not get this document, they say well then you have to pay full Rego price of 2 shillings and 6 pence, and you say that will do nicely thank you!
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Bingo you are now registered........
Here is the website to check out before you depart China also the same advise will apply if you are currently in Australia and want to import from China....I guess.
Basically you need to read the latest information from the Australian Customs Website regarding the importation of vehicles to Australia. It is better to have a bike that is older than 15 years from date of first registration, as these machines do not have to comply to Australian road plate regulations, and this allows you to get your bike registered on the road without having to comply to the more stringent ADR regulations. Also there is no GST to pay on vehicles older than 15 years of age. They still have to be road worthy but not to such a high standard, things like brake efficiencies, noise and emissions are less stringent. You must apply for an Vehicle Import Permit from Australian Customs by completing the LATEST form on their website CLICK HERE BEFORE you ship the bike, if they grant you approval they will send you a permit which allows you to import the vehicle but does not guarantee that you will be able to register the bike for road use. This has to come later once you are in Australia.
Basically the news for registering a bike is not good! Or at least not always straight forward, be prepared to do your homework and sweat a lot. You will need to check with the local Transport office for the State which you are intending to live when you get to Australia or return. Not all States will allow left-hand drive bikes to be registered on their roads. You will have to have a residential address in the State where you do register your bike so that annual registration renewals can be sent to you. If your intended State of residency does not allow the bike to be registered due to it's configuration you might consider trying other States as the laws are different in each State.
You can use what they call the "Grandfather rights" in some States which basically means, for example, that although some part of the bike does not meet the road inspection that it can still pass the test as it was originally designed that way and that is the way it has always been. i.e. you have not modified or changed it that way. Again by checking the local States Road Traffic office website you should be able to download what the actual road requirements are for that State and then measure your Chang against these standards. Some things are easy enough to take care of such as fitting reflectors and a number plate lamp, getting the brake linings upgraded to Western specification and changing the headlamp to allow correct "Dipping" of the headlamp for oncoming traffic if driving on the left side of the road.
Here are the local State Road Transport Office Website addresses:
Happy Riding Folks!