We are starting to come to grips with the problem I mentioned in my last blog post: bringing our boat into Australia. Adrienne and I would appreciate any help, in whatever form, because we are ready now, once we reach Fiji, to come home, although it seems very difficult - in view of the approach by the Australian Customs Department. We know only what you can read here, sent to us by a cruising couple currently in Fiji. We are currently at Lat 19 29'S, Long 178 03'W, approaching Vatoa Island in Fiji. we expect to be in Lautoka in another two days.

"If your yacht is American built, or built in any other country that has a free trade agreement with Australia, you don't have to pay the Duty of 5%.

Now how to work out the duty - take the value of your boat, and again this can be one of two ways. On the website they say the agreed sale value if the purchase was recent but they don't actually elaborate as to what 'recent' is. BUT say you use what you paid (we work on $100,000 then go up or down from there) So $100,000 plus 5% duty. Add that duty to the value so $105,000 Then you calculate 10% GST on that whole value so $10,500 Then you add that to the duty of $5000 and you have a rough total of what you pay $15,500

THEN they add your victualling and extras that are required to make the voyage taking the most direct passage from your last port. (?) I haven't worked out how they work that one out but we figure you tell them only what they need to know - you already had the charts/electronics/spares/etc onboard when you bought the yacht so you should only have to pay GST on the food and crew costs. As I say I haven't worked out how they do that one! Seems a bit dodgy to us as you pay tax on these items wherever you buy them so why does Australia get more? But we can't argue.

Now the buying time bit. If you fall into the Australian Citizen category then you have (we are told) 30 days to come up with the duty. We have heard a rumour that one guy got away with a years deferral by stating that he didn't know if he was staying in the country or not or leaving again. However we contacted Customs direct and they were emphatic that no exceptions would be made at all and we would have to pay duty. You can wade through the customs website and see if you can find a loophole but we haven't found one yet. We know of two yachts in the same position. One in NZ was battling with them to get a cruising permit to just pass through Australian Waters en route to Indonesia but Customs were absolute - come into out waters and you pay duty on arrival. We tried the same route but same answer.

Also the story of an Australian who has been battling for nearly 2 years now to get some straight answers with no luck. He and his wife own a yacht in Oz - it is for sale but with the market being what it is it hasn't even been nibbled at. They in the mean time have purchased a yacht in Venezuela and want to return to Oz but both being pensioners and having no money in reserve they can't pay the duty on arrival. He will pay once the other yacht sells but they won't let him in unless he pays. He finally got an email the other day in answer to his question about what they would do and it wasn't nice. On arrival they would be made to get off their home and the boat would be seized and sold. The fact that they have no home and no money meant nothing - so they are stuck here in Fiji trying to get home. They have just recently gone to Vanuatu to get another 18 month Visa for the boat here in Fiji and the fight continues."