gold, page-132680

Correct - but that's only if them at the border know what they are doing...

Earlier this year, I was carrying well over NZD$400k of gold & silver bullion in my shoulder bag on my way back to NZ from Perth, WA. It weighed exactly 7kg's so easily went in the cabin with me. I didn't want to get cute with any of the authorities so I played it safe and declared the stuff at Perth Airport. They weren't interested but advised me to make a declaration when I got to Melbourne and I was expecting to do the AUSTRAC declaration.

When I got to security at Tullamarine airport, I advised them I wanted to make a foreign currency declaration. They x-rayed my shoulder bag, asked me what exactly I wanted to declare and I said (in the quietest voice possible) "precious metals". They thanked me and pointed me to the ladies at the Customs desk. They sent me to the foreign exchange Customs guy at the next counter and, without a word of a lie, he looked blankly at me - asked me to repeat what I was carrying, which I did - then he simply shook his head (as if I was an idiot) and told me to go to the gate lounge ready to board my flight back to NZ. He had no idea what was going on.

I arrived back in NZ and immediately declared the stuff to the NZ Customs staff. Fearing interrogation, I had taken all the relevant backup paperwork with me to Oz and then back with me to NZ again and had no problems whatsoever. They filled out the forms for me - went through each bar in a private room and then we had a half hour conversation on the benefits of holding precious metals etc.