Inside quarantine: what the stay is actually like

Last verified: 2026-09-07

The answer

The requirement pages on this site tell you how to get an animal into quarantine. This one is about the part you actually worry about at two in the morning: what happens to your dog or cat during the 10 or 30 days, and how much of it you get to see.

The short version is that you get less contact than you expect, and the animal gets more care than the word “quarantine” suggests.

You cannot visit. At all

This is the fact people find hardest, so it is first:

Due to the short quarantine isolation period, we do not permit visiting of animals in post entry quarantine.

There is no visiting day, no exception for a distressed animal, and no arrangement a shipper can make on your behalf. The department frames the whole period as short and operational — care, plus the administrative and biosecurity work needed to release your animal.

What you will hear, and when

You get one guaranteed message:

You will receive an email notification to notify you that your animal has arrived safely, within 24 hours of arrival. We will contact you immediately if there is an issue with your animal on arrival.

Note what that is and is not. It is a confirmation of safe arrival and a promise of contact if something is wrong. It is not a promise of progress updates through the stay — the department publishes no update schedule, and this page will not invent one. Plan for silence between the arrival email and release, and treat no news as the system working normally.

Keep your contact details current with the facility. They are the only route in.

Where the animal actually lives

Animals are housed in climate-controlled pens. Animals will be allocated an individual pen at the time of booking. If you are importing multiple animals, we will try to house same species (for example, two dogs) in adjacent pens, where possible.

So: individual housing, climate controlled, and two dogs from the same household can usually be neighbours — not sharing, but within sight and smell of each other, which for a bonded pair is worth knowing.

On bedding and exercise:

We will provide bedding for cats and dogs to suit their breed and age.

We will attend to your animal’s exercise needs during their time in quarantine. The runs in the facilities are well set up and provide most animals with adequate room to exercise within their run. Biosecurity Officers provide regular exercise for animals.

“Regular” is the department’s word. It does not publish a timetable, pen dimensions or a feeding schedule, and none is asserted here.

Send nothing. Really, nothing

Two separate rules, and both end in destruction:

Do not send food with your animal. We will destroy any food sent with animals upon arrival due to the possible biosecurity risks associated with the food.

Please don’t send items to the facility. We do not take responsibility for any items sent to or left at the facility. We will destroy all bedding, soft toys, comfort items etc that travels with the animal in their transport crate upon arrival as they become soiled during the journey.

The blanket that smells of home does not comfort your dog in quarantine. It is destroyed on arrival, and the facility provides its own bedding instead. This is the single most common misunderstanding about the whole process, and it is worth telling anyone helping you pack.

The one exception is a genuine dietary need, and it works the other way round — not sent with the animal, but supplied to the facility:

If the provided food is not suitable for your animal’s health requirements, we would recommend that you supply your own pet food. Any food provided must be sourced from Australia. Please contact us (PEQservices@aff.gov.au) for delivery information.

Australian-sourced, arranged with the facility directly. If your animal is on a prescription diet, sort this out before you fly, not after.

If your animal becomes unwell

The Post Entry Quarantine facility does not have onsite veterinary facilities.

We will contact you or your authorised agent if urgent care is required, to authorise the transportation of your animal to the emergency veterinary hospital. … If we cannot contact you or your authorised agent, we will arrange emergency veterinary care without delay.

The person in charge is responsible for any costs associated with the emergency veterinary hospital.

Three things follow, and the third is worth reading alongside where the financial risk sits. Care is not on site, so it means transport to an external hospital. Your animal will not wait on your phone being answered. And the bill is yours — separate from the quarantine account, and not included in the department’s cost estimate.

Collection day

You/your authorised agent must collect your animal and their crate on the eligible release date. Animals can be collected between 10:00 and 12:00 hours.

Animals must be collected by the person named as importer on the import permit or their authorised agent. … Photo identification must be provided at the time of collection.

A two-hour window, on one named date, by one named person, with ID. If someone else is collecting, the facility must be told their details before the release date.

And the stay does not stretch to suit you:

Your animal cannot stay beyond their eligible release date. If you cannot collect your animal on the release date, you must make alternate arrangements for their pickup, boarding and care.

If your own flight lands after that window, arrange boarding before you leave. Remember the quarantine account must be settled in full before release.

Before you commit to any of this

The department asks a question worth sitting with, and it is about the flight rather than the facility:

Consider whether your cat or dog can cope with: travelling in the cargo hold of the plane; stress associated with being exposed to unfamiliar environments and sensations (sound, vibrations, scents); being unmonitored for extended periods whilst in transit and under the care of the aircraft operator.

That is the department, not this site, raising it. For an elderly, anxious or unwell animal it is the real question — and it belongs with your veterinarian well before a permit is applied for. See fitness for long-haul travel.

What this page does not tell you

• A daily timetable. Feeding times, exercise duration and pen dimensions are not published, and are not guessed at here.
• A progress-update schedule. Only the 24-hour arrival email is promised.
• How an extension of the minimum stay is decided, or how you are told about one.
• What the inspection on arrival consists of, which is covered as far as it is published on arrival and inspection.
• Anything about the facility’s location or how to get there on collection day.