We protect Australia from dangerous goods and activity that could harm our way of life.
Our focus is on allowing genuine people and goods to enter and exit freely, while stopping those who don't comply.
We meet a wide range of responsibilities, in an increasingly complex border environment.
Protect Australia's border
We work in partnership with other agencies to protect Australia’s border from:
- terrorism
- extremism
- dangerous products
- illegal activity
- disease
Our teams work together on land, at sea and offshore to stop threats before they enter our country.
Prevent illegal entry
We work in all 8 of Australia’s international airports to
prevent entry of illegal and harmful goods.
Our teams are also placed in 60 international seaports, and remote mining ports around the country.
We use intelligence, technology and detector dogs to help us protect against terrorism. They also help us stop the movement of illicit drugs and prohibited imports.
Protect our coastline
We keep an armed presence around Australia’s coastline so that we can respond to threats quickly.
Maritime Border Command protects against:
- illegal activity
- illegal use of natural resources
- marine pollution
- prohibited imports/exports
- illegal sea arrivals
- bio-security threats
- piracy, robbery or violence at sea
- terrorism
Australia’s marine zone is more than 10 million square kilometres. We patrol this area with a fleet of
patrol boats and specialist vessels.
Detain unlawful non-citizens
We protect our community by making sure people follow our
immigration laws.
This includes:
- finding unlawful non-citizens
- detaining those who arrive or stay illegally
- removing unlawful non-citizens from Australia
We are also responsible for supporting people in
community detention centres.
Breed and train detector dogs
Detector dogs help us find prohibited and restricted goods. They are trained to search people, items and areas for:
- narcotics
- firearms
- explosives
- currency
- tobacco
We breed and train
detector dogs at a special facility in Victoria.
Individuals and families can
foster a future detector dog. They help us care for them while they are puppies.
