Military Cleaning Requirements

It is the visiting military's responsibility to ensure that all military equipment arrives in Australia free from quarantine risk material. AQIS has little tolerance for any soil, animal or plant contamination.

Military personnel and their equipment pose a high quarantine risk to Australia due to the environment in which they train and operate, so all equipment will be 100% inspected.

Some cleaning guides have been developed to assist in the cleaning of military equipment:

• Australian Defence Force—Force Extraction Cleaning Manual 
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• USA Military—Guides are available on the APAN website
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• Other countries—see contact details below

More information on Guidelines for Offshore Inspection for the Australian Defence Force and Visiting Military.

Vehicles and associated equipment

All vehicles must be free from quarantine risk material.  All vehicles must be dismantled to be thoroughly cleaned.  Any vehicle that is heavily contaminated on arrival into Australia may be directed for export by AQIS.

All clothing, packs, webbing, boots and ancillary equipment must be fully unpacked, dismantled and thoroughly cleaned. This will ensure that quarantine officers have access to all areas which will allow for an efficient inspection.

Backpack and webbing must be completely unpacked and dismantled prior to inspection.  This includes the removal of tape and unclipping of any pouches. Supporting boards and/or supporting metal bars inside packs must be removed. It is the responsibility of military personnel to perform all unpacking, presentation for inspection, cleaning and repacking of equipment.

Parachutes are also considered high risk and will be thoroughly inspected. Military personnel must ensure that parachutes are free from quarantine risk material prior to packing.

All personal baggage will be inspected.  Military clothing and boots present a particularly high risk.  Seeds and soil are often found along the tongue of boots and under the inner soles. It is important that a great deal of attention is taken when cleaning these areas. Pockets and velcro strips in military clothing attract a lot of quarantine risk material and also require careful cleaning.

For information on containerised equipment please refer to Cargo Containers: Quarantine aspects and procedures.  This document contains information on container cleanliness requirements, timber and dunnage requirements and the potential means of introducing serious pests and diseases into Australia via containers.  This document is designed to answer most questions on Australian quarantine entry requirements for containers.

For further information contact:

AQIS Military
Phone: + 61 7 3246 8755
Fax: + 61 7 3246 8785
Email: AQIS Military For general military enquiries