Customs Makes Checks Smoother
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday February 14, 1991
The Australian Customs Service is taking the pain out of berthing in Sydney for yachts and small boats.
Instead of making the vessels drop anchor at Watsons Bay, often in rough conditions, Customs has moved its Marine Reporting Station to the calmer waters of Neutral Bay.
Inadvertently, it has revived a tradition of foreign vessels sheltering there. As early as 1789 foreign vessels were allowed to anchor in Neutral Bay but it had nothing to do with Customs. It was deemed to be far enough away from Sydney Cove to stop convicts making their escape by sneaking on to ships
The new Collector of Customs in NSW, Mr Jim Conlon, said that the number of small vessels entering Australia through Sydney varied seasonally, but during summer there had been about 100.
Mr Conlon yesterday launched a new brochure called Yachts And Other Small Craft for people planning to visit or leave Australia by non-commercial boats. It outlines arrival procedures, quarantine requirements, import and export restrictions and other information. Brochures will be distributed through embassies, consulates and yacht clubs.
Mr Conlon, 49, has been with the Australian Customs Service for 32 years and his career has taken him throughout the State, to Europe and most recently Canberra where he was the national manager of Coastwatch which does aerial surveillance of Australia's north.
He is in charge of 1,600 staff in Sydney. The marine staff have 210 kilometres of shoreline to survey just in Sydney Harbour.
"People's percepetion of Customs is the uniformed officer at the airport,"Mr Conlon said.
But the Customs Service is second only to the Taxation Department in revenue collection, with a total last year of $13.5billion.
"It is pervasive, there is almost nothing that happens that Customs has not had a hand in," he said.
One man on the waterfront, or the barrier as he calls it, is Mr John Devine, the Inspector Marine for NSW.
Mr Devine, 47, has four years' service with Customs after a long career working as a civilian marine specialist in the defence forces.
His aim has been to make Customs a pro-active force instead of a reactive one.
"We are out there chasing bad guys," Mr Devine said.
Last year his team inspected every river and harbour along the NSW Coast, resulting in six arrests and a wealth of information.
© 1991 Sydney Morning Herald
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