Your Goods Have Arrived and Nothing Has Been Lodged

Cargo cannot leave an Australian terminal until an import declaration has been lodged and cleared. If your goods have landed and no declaration exists — because you have no broker, because the arrangement with your supplier ended at the port, or because whoever was handling it has gone quiet — the shipment is not lost. It is accruing charges while it waits.

This is fixable, usually within a day or two of getting the right documents. The cost is not the clearance. It is every day the container sits while nobody lodges anything.

Enquiries during normal business hours.

Working with licensed customs brokers · All Australian ports · We will tell you if you don’t need us

How importers end up here

• The supplier’s forwarder stopped at the port. A CIF or CFR sale ends when the goods arrive. Import clearance, duty, GST and delivery were always the buyer’s responsibility, and the buyer often does not realise until the arrival notice appears.
• First-time importing. The purchase was arranged, the goods shipped, and nobody was appointed to clear them.
• The broker relationship broke down — unpaid invoices, an unresponsive agent, or a forwarder who has stopped answering.
• A nominated agent overseas appointed someone here without telling the importer, so the importer does not know who holds the shipment.
• The goods were bought from a domestic-looking seller who was in fact drop-shipping from overseas.

None of these are unusual, and none of them prevent a different broker taking the shipment over.

What to do now, in order

1. Find the bill of lading or air waybill. Everything starts here. Without it, nobody can establish who is entitled to the goods.
2. Establish whether the bill has been released. If the original bill is still with the supplier or their bank, no amount of customs work will get the container out. That has to be resolved with the supplier first.
3. Find out where the cargo physically is and who is holding it — the terminal, a depot, or a forwarder’s consolidation warehouse. Each has different charges and different release procedures.
4. Get the arrival date and the free time. This tells you how much room you actually have, and it is usually less than people expect.
5. Appoint someone to lodge the declaration. You can change broker mid-shipment; you do not have to stay with whoever was originally involved.
6. Decide how GST will be handled. If your business is registered for the Deferred GST Scheme, import GST goes onto your monthly BAS instead of being paid at the border, which materially changes the cash required to release the goods.

What we need to take a shipment over

To lodge a declaration a broker generally needs:

• The bill of lading or air waybill, and confirmation it has been released
• The commercial invoice and packing list
• Your ABN, and a customs broker authority so the broker can act for you
• Enough detail about the goods to classify them — what they are made of, what they do, and how they are used
• Any permits, certificates or treatment documentation the goods require
• Freight and insurance costs, so the customs value can be worked out correctly

If some of that is missing we will tell you what is genuinely required versus what is merely useful. Not every gap is a blocker.

What it costs while nothing is lodged

Two separate meters run, and they are charged by different parties:

• Storage at the terminal or depot, which starts once free time expires
• Container detention to the shipping line, which runs until the empty container is returned

Neither pauses because a broker has not been appointed. Our guide to demurrage and detention sets out how the two differ and why importers are frequently surprised by receiving both.

On top of that sit the government charges that apply to the declaration itself — the import processing charge, plus duty and GST assessed on the value of the goods. Those are payable whenever the declaration is lodged; delaying does not reduce them.

How we help

We work with licensed customs brokers to lodge the declaration, arrange release from the terminal, and get the goods delivered. Where the shipment has been sitting, we deal with the terminal and the shipping line on the storage and detention position at the same time, because handling those separately is how a two-day problem becomes a two-week one.

If the real obstacle is that the supplier has not released the bill of lading, we will say so plainly rather than take the job and bill you for waiting. We will tell you if you don’t need us.

Questions importers ask

Can I clear the goods myself?

An importer can lodge their own declaration, and for a straightforward one-off consignment some do. It requires registration and a working understanding of tariff classification, valuation and permit requirements. Where the goods are already accruing storage, the learning curve is usually more expensive than the brokerage.

Can I change broker with the container already here?

Yes. You are not locked in. What matters is that the bill of lading is released and that whoever currently holds the cargo is paid what they are genuinely owed for work already done.

The supplier said the price included delivery. Why am I being asked to pay?

Check the Incoterm on the invoice. CIF and CFR both end at the destination port and neither includes import clearance, duty, GST or delivery. Only DDP places those on the seller. See our note on Incoterms if you are not sure which applies.

How long does clearance take once you have everything?

Where the documents are complete and the goods are straightforward, a declaration can usually be lodged the same day. What varies is everything around it — document release, permits, inspection, and transport availability. We would rather give you a realistic answer for your shipment than a number that sounds good.

The ABF has already held my goods.

That is a different situation with different steps. See cargo held by customs.

Taking a shipment over means lodging the declaration through customs clearance and then arranging delivery. If the container is sitting at a Brisbane terminal, our Brisbane freight forwarding page covers how we work locally; for the container itself, see container shipping.

Get your shipment cleared

Send us the bill of lading and the commercial invoice. We will tell you what is needed, what it will cost, and how quickly it can move.

Planning an import rather than dealing with one that has landed? Request a freight quote.