Keepers from Australia

YeloNeck · Aug 25, 2015

Hey Guys, I don't know if i picked correct forum, but I have a question. How many of You live in Australia? I will move to Australia next year, and was thinking about starting breeding T's there. What about the law, is it legal to get most of the tarantulas there?

BobGrill · Aug 25, 2015

From what I understand it's only legal to keep native species there.

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Chris LXXIX · Aug 25, 2015

What i know about Australia is that they are very but very hard when it comes to import foreign animals and not.
For instance, an Australian collector told me that you can't import a Shuar shrunken head reproduction (they use Alpaca skin and stuff for that) nor ancient tribal masks made from certain woods (they fear infestations etc) from Borneo or Papua New Guinea (except for museums).

Chainsaw Reptiles · Aug 25, 2015

You have to have Reptile License I think

YeloNeck · Aug 26, 2015

Thank You guys. That is not what i wanted to hear, but was expecting that.

Poec54 · Aug 26, 2015

Bad news: Australia collectors post here once in a while, and they wish they could have exotic tarantulas, but can't by law.

Good news: There a number of tarantula species in Australia, and more being found and named all the time. There's an assortment, including a blue one, an orange one, some arboreals, and one that gets 9".

Storm76 · Aug 26, 2015

...and none of them doesn't have an attitude

GG80 · Aug 26, 2015

Australia is very strict on imports of any animal, plant or food. You more than likely will not be allowed to keep Ts from outside Australia except for scientific purposes and even then they would have to be in a secure location with no risk of escape into the wild.

On the other hand, they have some interesting native Ts as poec pointed out and some seriously interesting true spiders. I lived there for 2 years and was amazed at the abundance of different species of true spiders. I kept some large huntsman spiders and jumping spiders. Even the house spiders were interesting to me. However, I stayed well away from the Sydney Funnel Web spider

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borotasinisa · Aug 26, 2015

Poec54 said:
Good news: There a number of tarantula species in Australia, and more being found and named all the time. There's an assortment, including a blue one, an orange one, some arboreals, and one that gets 9".

Could you post some links? I've seen only a few species and they were all kind of a brownish burrowers (like P.muticus)...

Nosiris · Aug 26, 2015

However, I stayed well away from the Sydney Funnel Web spider .

Oh you would not like to meet Hadronyche formidabilis then... twice the size and even nastier venom, very fast and very grumpy. When the latin name means 'terrifying' you know it's appropriate to stand well back...

Arachnomaniac19 · Aug 27, 2015

I just want to point this out, these Aussie spiders have HOT venom. Enough to easily kill dog. Check out the bite reports. I don't want to persuade you not to get a spider, but to know what's in store. Kind this in mind too, no one's ever died from a tarantula bite.

From what I've seen, there are a few calm species out there. For example I'm pretty sure Phlogius sp. Goliath is a relatively calm spider. Not to mention it gets absolutely huge! I've heard of 9" females! If you want an idea on what spiders are out there for you look for Steve Nunn's website on Australian tarantulas. He's probably the most educated person on Australian tarantulas.

Chris LXXIX · Aug 27, 2015

GG80 said:
Australia is very strict on imports of any animal, plant or food. You more than likely will not be allowed to keep Ts from outside Australia except for scientific purposes and even then they would have to be in a secure location with no risk of escape into the wild.

On the other hand, they have some interesting native Ts as poec pointed out and some seriously interesting true spiders. I lived there for 2 years and was amazed at the abundance of different species of true spiders. I kept some large huntsman spiders and jumping spiders. Even the house spiders were interesting to me. However, I stayed well away from the Sydney Funnel Web spider .

Question: not talking about Australia Theraphosidae such Phlogius crassipes and other spiders in general, but only about the best badass Mygalomorphae of the world.. Atrax robustus. Maybe i'm in error but from what i know about (Australian people who told me that) you can't, legally, own one specimen at home (except for those who milk venom, labs etc). Legally, i mean (because if you catch one and say nothing it's always a different story).
Are they right about or, actually, you can own legally Atrax robustus in Australia?

tonypace2009 · Aug 27, 2015

Apparently Australia is spending millions of dollars trying to rid itself of non native fire ants. They are actually using helicopters to track their expansion by marking mounds and mapping by air. So it reasonable to believe they may be a little prejudice against all non native insects. The biggest scare tattic in some of the cities I have lived in is the threat of infestation so tarantulas are not to be sold. This fear is even used by property owners and landlords.

GG80 · Aug 28, 2015

Chris LXXIX said:
Question: not talking about Australia Theraphosidae such Phlogius crassipes and other spiders in general, but only about the best badass Mygalomorphae of the world.. Atrax robustus. Maybe i'm in error but from what i know about (Australian people who told me that) you can't, legally, own one specimen at home (except for those who milk venom, labs etc). Legally, i mean (because if you catch one and say nothing it's always a different story).
Are they right about or, actually, you can own legally Atrax robustus in Australia?

I haven't heard that but then again it's been 12 years since I was there. I can't imagine how it would be illegal to keep a spider that can be naturally found in the house or even in the garden. Perhaps it's illegal to take species out of one habitat to another, ie. taking a species like Atrax robustus which generally inhabits the outer suburban areas of Sydney and bringing it into the city could be illegal but keeping a huntsman which are commonly found in the house surely can't be illegal.

Then you have to think of the size of Australia, the biggest island in the world with so many different eco systems. Taking a species of spider from the jungles of Queensland to New South Wales could have a major impact on the local NSW environment if it gets out into the wild and thrives. Australia is VERY strick about this kind of stuff.

Chris LXXIX · Aug 28, 2015

GG80 said:
I haven't heard that but then again it's been 12 years since I was there. I can't imagine how it would be illegal to keep a spider that can be naturally found in the house or even in the garden. Perhaps it's illegal to take species out of one habitat to another, ie. taking a species like Atrax robustus which generally inhabits the outer suburban areas of Sydney and bringing it into the city could be illegal but keeping a huntsman which are commonly found in the house surely can't be illegal.

Then you have to think of the size of Australia, the biggest island in the world with so many different eco systems. Taking a species of spider from the jungles of Queensland to New South Wales could have a major impact on its new environment if it gets out into the wild and multiplies. Australia is VERY strick about this kind of stuff.

I'm Italian, and here you can't (legally) own native spiders like Loxosceles rufescens or Latrodectus tredecimguttatus. Tough that due to Atrax robustus venom potency and from what Australian people told me about.

Poec54 · Aug 29, 2015

GG80 said:
Then you have to think of the size of Australia, the biggest island in the world.

Australia's a continent.

Philth · Aug 29, 2015

Chainsaw Reptiles said:
You have to have Reptile License I think

Lol, what does that even mean ?

GG80 · Aug 29, 2015

Poec54 said:
Australia's a continent.

Yes, but it is still the biggest island in the world.

---------- Post added 08-29-2015 at 07:57 PM ----------

Chris LXXIX said:
I'm Italian, and here you can't (legally) own native spiders like Loxosceles rufescens or Latrodectus tredecimguttatus. Tough that due to Atrax robustus venom potency and from what Australian people told me about.

Maybe you are right so. I didn't know that. Perhaps it's an environmental issue.

windscorpions1 · Aug 29, 2015

GG80 said:
Yes, but it is still the biggest island in the world.

---------- Post added 08-29-2015 at 07:57 PM ----------

Maybe you are right so. I didn't know that. Perhaps it's an environmental issue.

I think his point was that Australia is not an island

a continent and an island are two different things lol

Chris LXXIX · Aug 29, 2015

GG80 said:
Yes, but it is still the biggest island in the world.

---------- Post added 08-29-2015 at 07:57 PM ----------

Maybe you are right so. I didn't know that. Perhaps it's an environmental issue.

I think is their (fair enough IMO) point of view.. i mean: yeah, you got bitten by Atrax robustus (in your pool, shoes, house, not by your fault definitely etc) and that's an unlucky even that DO happens in Australia (Docs are prepared extremely well for deal with that).
But they discovers that "you" end up bitten by Atrax robustus because YOU owned (mostly, a wandering male you managed to catch cup) one at your home during husbandry? That would be asking for troubles and IMO lead to legal troubles. Can be wrong of course, but that's what Australians told me.

Keepers from Australia

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