What John has said basically tells the story. For my trip I was travelling through four Aussie states:

* I arrived in Victoria (Melbourne) and stayed a week in Geelong. While in Vic I attended the BGRC match.
* I flew from Melbourne to Adelaide (South Australia). I was in SA four or five days.
* From SA we traveled by automobile to the Northern Territory and stayed there about 8 days.
* I flew out of Darwin, with a stop-over in Sydney (New South Wales), and then left for the U.S.

Perhaps all of the red tape could have been navigated. I started out with that intention, because I wanted my own rifle with me. But the bureaucracy wore me down until I came to the conclusion that dragging a rifle around all that travel plan just wasn't my best option. The biggest uncertainty was importing into one state (Victoria) and exporting from another state (NSW). One hard-headed official in NSW customs, and it would be bye-bye rifle, and perhaps a criminal charge.

It was a great trip nonetheless.

Curl