Traveling to Australia

S

shwetakhanna

Registered User
We are traveling to Australia next week with our 4 year old. As we would be there for about a month and driving around a lot, should we carrying our own car seat? Cathay allows carseat only upto 3 years old, for a 4 year old do we have to check-in the carseat? Also, we use the Graco turbo available in toysrus, will that meet the safety requirements there?
Or should we just rent/buy one there? They seem to be very expensive there. And should we carry a push chair also?
Also, please suggest if we should carry any other stuff from that is generally needed there with children.
Thanks in advance.
 
Check the Cathay website re the carseat. We normally just hire it when we get to Australia. About A$10 a day. That way we know we are complying with laws and as the children get older, the seat changes.

If you are travelling a lot - do you need a pram? Most shopping malls have ones you can use. Otherwise, maybe look at buying one of the small ones and taking that -- or purchase one on ebay in Australia that are near your first stop and pick it up after you arrive.

If you are doing lots of car travel, have a small bag with a change of clothes, sippy cup, toys (iPod or DS are good as they can contain a lot of games/movies), plastic bags for rubbish and snacks - lots and lots of snacks!

Have fun.
 
Australia has really strict car seat laws and all car seats must have the Australian Standard of Approval marked on the seat. It would be better to hire a seat with the car as then you know it will be ok. Of course, the chances of your car seat being checked is low, however if you happen to be in an accident or some sort of traffic violation, you may find there are issues with your insurance and/or fines for not complying with the law.
We leave our car seat here, even though you can buy the exact seat in Aus because as it was bought here it is missing the approval sticker. See http://www.babycenter.com.au/baby/buyingforbaby/carseats/car_seat_laws/
You may find that different states have slightly different laws so can google the state you are going to.

If you fly Cathay you will need to check in the car seat, and depending on the model of aircraft you generally can't take any car seats on board at any age, so I would check with them. We have never been able to take one on board to Australia due to the airbags in the aircraft seatbelts.

As for the push chair, that will depend how much your child uses it, we forgot ours last trip back with our 3 year old and realised it was a pain without it, so we purchased a very basic but perfectly adequate one from Target for AUD20 and just left it behind when we came back.
Hope that helps.
 
I would just hire/borrow one there as I agree with Flack the car seat laws there are pretty strict and if you have an accident you will get into all sorts of grief if your seat is not complaint. I noted my maxi cosi ones are not complaint with the Aus laws so leave them here.
Also Australia is generally very stroller friendly and I tend to bring my huge monster city double stroller to aus and it works fine for long day trips with heaps of storage for the children's things.
You'll find it's a very child friendly sort of country, kids, even the very young ones are usually out and about.
Taxi are extremely pricey++++++ and so are snakcs so stcok up on them at supermarkets Coles/Woolworths before you head out.
 
The other thing I forgot is that cars in Australia generally do not have isofix and I am not sure if isofix seats are approved yet for use in aus. The car seat must have a top tether anchor point as well as the seat belt. Very few seats sold here have the top tether point as it is not a requirement in very many countries (just aus and nz I think). So if you take your own seat and do get stopped by police for any reason it would be pretty noticeable if your seat was not anchored with a top tether and would would get a fine for a non compliant car seat. All in all it will be easier to hire one there I would think.
 
Forget about taxi hire with a child that needs to be in a car seat in Australia! Taxi's don't have them so you need to make sure you have one and can install it (so you need to request a taxi that has the anchor if your car seat is an anchored one!). At least this is the case in Melbourne and Sydney.
 
The taxi laws do vary from state to state, you can google them easily enough, this is from the NSW website

Do we need a child restraint in taxis and buses?
Taxis
Taxi drivers must ensure:

All passengers younger than 12 months must be secured in a child restraint.
All passengers aged over 12 months and under 16 years must:
occupy a seating position that is fitted with a suitable seatbelt, and
not occupy the same seating position as another passenger (whether or not the other passenger is exempt from wearing a seatbelt under rule 267), and
wear the seatbelt properly adjusted and fastened.
 
Thank You all for your suggestions. We bought an Australian car seat online this weekend. Just need to go and buy a push chair.
Actually we will not be using the taxis at all. I am visiting my brother and my parents, so we will have our own cars there, so not worried about the taxi laws.
Thanks again.
 
Another question please.

We need to take 4 boxes of formula. So can I just transfer them to ziplocks and put in the check in bags or should we take sealed boxes? Will the ziplocks cause a problem with the customs there?

Thanks
 
I'd take them sealed. Australian quarantine is pretty full on about food entering the country and if they can't identify it easily they may confiscate it. At least if its sealed the officer can see exactly what it is and there should be no issues. We have taken formula in no problems and some of the time they've not even asked to see it, but be prepared that they will want to check it.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
Flack is correct. Australian quarantine is very strict. Keep them in sealed boxes. Just to let you know how strict they are, fruit is strictly prohibited, even if it is given on the plane. You have to dump it.*
Posted via Mobile Device
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top