Flying to Melbourne

Travel Insurance

Students are advised to take out at least 4 weeks travel insurance before departure. Your travel agent should be able to help you organise this.

Booking Your Flight

Once your course application has been fully processed, the course tuition fees paid in full and your student visa granted, you should make a flight booking to Melbourne. You MUST arrive well before your course commencement date.

Please note that, particularly from December to February and between May and July, flights to Australia can quickly become fully booked.

Preparing Your Finances

It is a good idea to arrive with some Australian money. It is recommended that you bring approximately AUD$250 in cash (notes and coins), and maybe AUD$500 to AUD$1000 in travellers cheques or as a bank draft.

It is also helpful to have a credit card, especially in emergencies.The most common credit cards used in Australia are Visa and MasterCard. Some shops and restaurants will also accept American Express and Diners Club credit cards.

International Arrivals

On the plane, you will be given an Incoming Passenger Card to complete. You will need to fill in your flight details and customs information.

Make sure you have your passport and Incoming Passenger Card ready for the Entry Control Point.

When you have passed through the Entry Control Point, you will collect your baggage and exit via Customs and Quarantine (AQIS).

There are 2 exit channels after you have collected your baggage.

• If you have any goods to declare, you must walk through the red channel
• If you have nothing to declare, you can proceed through the green channel

Domestic Arrivals

If you are flying to Melbourne from another state, you will arrive either at Melbourne Airport or Avalon Airport.

From Avalon Airport, which is about a 40 minute drive south-west of the city, you can hire cars, or catch a taxi into the city.

Domestic passengers are not usually required to go through the Entry Control Point.

Arriving in Australia

Before your aircraft arrives in Australia you will be given an Incoming Passenger Card to fill in. This is a legal document and you must tick "Yes" if you are carrying any food, wooden material, plant material or animal products. If you are unsure about items you are carrying, declare them anyway, by ticking "Yes".

In many cases items will be returned to you after inspection. However, any item that has a pest or disease risk will be withheld. Depending on the quarantine risk, some items can be treated to make them safe (you will have to pay a fee) while other quarantine risk items may need to be destroyed or returned to your home country (again, you would have to pay for this).

All luggage is screened using a combination of detector dogs, x-ray machines and physical inspection of bags upon arrival in Australia . If you fail to declare any quarantine items or make a false declaration:

• You could be fined up to AUD$220 on the spot
• You could be prosecuted and fined up to AUD$66,000 and/or risk 10 years imprisonment.

Once You're Here

Australian Quarantine screens ALL international mail sent to Australia. Quarantine will remove high risk quarantine items from parcels. Therefore it is important to let your family and friends know what items cannot be sent to you in Australia . Anything they send by mail must be declared on the postal declaration label. Many of your favourite foods are available in Australia 's major cities. These foods have to pass strict quarantine conditions before they are allowed into Australia .

To find out more information on what you can and cannot bring into Australia at the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service website.

Airport pick-up service

The airport pick-up service is free for Swinburne international students when they first arrive.

Harlan is Swinburne’s reception agent.

A driver from Harlan will meet you at the airport after you have cleared customs and transport you to your arranged accommodation.

Students may experience waiting periods at the airport and on their journey, as the driver may be required to drop off other students in the same pick up. We appreciate your patience with this.

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  Online Booking System

  You can use our Online Booking System to arrange the Pick Up Service before you arrive. Your SAMS and Student's ID numbers are required to log in the online booking form and you need to provide your accommodation address in Melbourne. You must book at least 24 hours before you arrive, otherwise we will not be able to guarantee a place for you.

If you have any problem in logging in the booking system please email your full arrival details to Accommodation Advisor (accommodation@swin.edu.au)

If you are arriving with family members they will be required to pay on arrival and make payment directly to the Harlan driver. The cost is AUD$80 per person. Please include the number of family members accompanying you when completing the online booking form in the ‘comments’ section.

Skybus

The Skybus is a special bus service that runs between Melbourne (CBD) and Melbourne Airport. It leaves from the domestic and international terminals and costs about AUD$15.

Please refer to the Skybus website for timetable and more information.

Taxis

All Melbourne taxis are yellow and are available at each terminal. Taxi fares to the CBD from Melbourne Airport cost approximately AUD$50 to AUD$60.

Additional charges may apply for taxis waiting at the airport taxi rank, or those that commute to their destination via tollways.

Arriving at your accommodation

If you have booked your airport pick up through Swinburne International, the Harlan driver will take you directly to your accommodation.