//
© 2026 Zoe. All rights reserved.
Zoe is a legal information platform. Always consult the Federal Register of Legislation for authoritative text.
Commonwealth legislation
This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.
These regulations set detailed labelling, inspection, grading, and permit rules for specified imports and exports (food, medicines, apparel, jewellery, seeds, leather, margarine, butter, cheese, meat, fruit, plants, etc.). They require trade descriptions on coverings or goods, disclosure of additives or drugs in some products, pre‑shipment inspection at appointed places, official grading/stamping, certificates, fees, and penalties.
They affect importers, exporters, manufacturers and Customs: exporters bear inspection and certification steps and fees (and may pay supervising officers), while the Comptroller‑General and Minister exercise administrative choices about places, analysts and exemptions.
Want the full deep dive?
Zoe can write the in-depth analysis on top of the summary above: how it works, who it affects and what each part actually does.
Direct links to the current provisions in Commerce Regulations 1910 (Provisional).
Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
STATUTORY RULES.
1910. No. 120.
PROVISIONAL REGULATIONS UNDER THE COMMERCE (TRADE DESCRIPTIONS) ACT 1905.
I, THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL in and over the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, do hereby certify that on account of urgency the following Regulations under the Commerce (Trade Descriptions) Act 1905 should come into immediate operation, and make the Regulations to come into operation forthwith as Provisional Regulations except as to paragraph (fb) of Regulation 8, which shall come into operation on and from the first day of April, 1911.
Dated this 29th day of November, One thousand nine hundred and ten.
DUDLEY,
Governor-General.
By His Excellency’s Command,
FRANK G. TUDOR,
Minister of State for Trade and Customs.
REGULATIONS UNDER THE COMMERCE (TRADE DESCRIPTIONS) ACT 1905.
PART I.—INTRODUCTORY.
Short Title.
Parts.
Part I.—Introductory.
Part II.—Trade Descriptions of Imports.
Part III.—Trade Descriptions of Exports.
Part IV.—Inspection of Exports.
Part V.—Classification, Certification, Inspection, and Marking.
Part VI.—Miscellaneous.
C.14379.
Definitions.
In those regulations, unless the contrary intention appears—
“Appointed place” means a place appointed by the Comptroller General, by writing under his hand, to be a place where any goods enumerated in Part III. of these Regulations and intended for export may be inspected and examined. It may include any wharf at which such goods are exported, and any ship used for the conveyance of such goods for export.
“Butter fat” means the fat of cow’s milk.
“Carcase meat” includes any meat being portion of a carcase.
“Coverings” means all the principal coverings in which goods are contained, and in which such goods are usually sold wholesale or retail.
“Creamery butter” means butter, other than pastry butter or milled butter, made from centrifugally separated cream.
“Disease,” in relation to fruit, plants, seeds, maize, or potatoes means any abnormal condition of or in such goods, whether consisting of the presence of, or caused by or due to the operations, development, growth or decay of, any insect or fungus, and also, in relation to fruit, includes the condition known as “Bitter Pit.”
“Disease,” in relation to meat, means pleuro-pneumonia, tuberculosis, anthrax, swine fever, trichinosis, cancer, and any disease in stock declared by the Governor-General by proclamation to be included in this definition; and includes any defect, inferiority, or abnormal conditions in the meat which renders it unsightly or unfit for human food.
“Food” and “drink” include every article used as food or drink by man other than drugs and water.
“Gold-plated” and “gilt” mean coated with gold by the electric process, or by any other process which results in a covering of gold of a quality and thickness other than that defined for rolled gold or gold-cased goods.
“Leather” means leather intended for or usually employed in the manufacture of boots, shoes, and other apparel.
“Manures” includes all substances intended for or commonly used as fertilizers of the soil, except farm-yard or stable manures and crude materials for the manufacture of manures.
“Margarine” means any substance, whether compound or otherwise, prepared in imitation of butter, and whether mixed with butter or not.
“Meat” means the flesh of animals intended for human consumption, whether fresh or preserved, and includes sausage casings.
“Milled butter” means butter which is a mixture or blend of two or more butters ordinarily packed alone and under separate names or brands, and which have been mixed or blended at a place other than where manufactured and packed.
3 (continued)—
“Pasteurized,” in relation to liquids, means subjected to heat in such a manner as to destroy fully-developed micro-organisms, but not necessarily the spores thereof.
“Pastry butter” means butter which is not fit for ordinary table use.
“Plants” includes every part of any plant (except the seed) intended for planting or purposes of propagation.
“Preservative” means boric acid, salicylic acid, sulphurous acid formic aldehyde, and any preparation of any of those substances used as a preservative agent, and any substance declared by proclamation to be a preservative.
“Registered brand” means a brand registered with the Department of Trade and Customs, in pursuance of these regulations.
“Rolled gold” and “gold-cased” mean material consisting of a base metal covered by mechanical means with a shell or covering of gold of such quality and thickness as will effectively protect the underlying base metal from the action of pure nitric acid.
“Sole” in relation to boots and shoes means all that part of the boot or shoe which in use is under the foot of the wearer, except only the thin slip of leather, paper, or the like, which is affixed to the upper surface of the inner sole.
“Sound” and “Soundness” have relation to freedom from disease, as defined in these Regulations, and from damage, or decay.
“State” includes any territory under the control of the Commonwealth to which the Act applies.
“The Act” means the Commerce (Trade Descriptions) Act 1905.
Ships’ Stores.
PART II.—TRADE DESCRIPTIONS OF IMPORTS.
Conditional Prohibition of Certain Imports.
Imports to which a Trade Description must be applied.
(a) Articles used for food or drink by man, or used in the manufacture or preparation of articles used for food or drink by man;
(b) Medicines or medicinal preparations for internal or external use;
(c) Manures;
(d) Apparel (including boots and shoes), and the materials from which apparel is manufactured;
(e) Jewellery;
(f) Agricultural Seeds; and Plants.
2 a
Trade Description—General Requirements.
7. The trade description to be applied in accordance with this Part shall comply with the following provisions:—
(a) It shall be in the form of a principal label or brand affixed in a prominent position and in as permanent a manner as practicable to the goods, or where affixture to the goods is impracticable, to the coverings containing the goods; and
(b) It shall contain in prominent and legible characters a true description of the goods, and the name of the country or place in which the goods were made or produced; and
(c) In cases where any weight or quantity is set out, it shall specify whether the weight or quantity so set out is gross or net.
Trade Description—Additional Requirements in Certain Cases.
(a) In the case of articles used as food or drink by man, or used in the preparation of articles used as food or drink by man, and containing any deleterious or preservative substance, the trade description shall include a statement setting forth that the articles contain the deleterious or preservative substance, and in the case of preservative substances, the amount thereof per pint or pound weight of the goods.
(b) In the case of foods for infants, if the food is not suitable for general use for infants under the age of six months, the trade description shall include, in legible characters and conspicuously displayed, the following words, namely, “Not suitable for Infants under the age of Six Months.”
(c) In the case of milk, the trade description shall, describe the milk as Condensed Milk, Concentrated Milk, Dried Milk, or Condensed Skimmed Milk, as the case requires.
(d) In the case of fruit, fresh or dried, the trade description shall set out its condition as to cleanness and freedom from disease.
(e) In the case of medicines and medicinal preparations prepared ready for internal use, and containing more than 17.5 per cent, by volume of proof spirit (equivalent to 10 per cent. by volume of ethyl alcohol) the trade description shall include a statement setting out the percentage, by volume, of proof spirit contained in the goods.
(f) In the case of medicines and medicinal preparations for internal or external use, if the goods contain any of the following drugs, or the active principles, salts, compounds, derivatives, or preparations thereof, viz.:—
Bromides, iodides, chloral, chloretone, dionin, dormiol, paraldehyde, heroin, sulphonal, veronal, or any natural or synthetic hypnotic substance; or
8 (continued)—
Cantharides, cotton root, ergot, oil of pennyroyal, oil of rue, oil of savin, oil of tansy, oil of parsley, or any emmenagogue or reputed abortifacient substance; or
Any drugs of vegetable origin being or containing poisonous principles, or medicinal alkaloids, or glucosides; or
Acetanilide, exalgine, phenacetin, phenazone, or any allied analgesic or antipyretic substance; or
Any poisonous salt of arsenicum, barium, copper, lead, or mercury; or
Adrenaline or the like, bromoform, carbolic acid, chloroform, creosote, cresylic acid, hydrocyanic acid, free phosphorus, or nitroglycerin,
the trade description shall include an explicit statement to such effect, setting out, in regard to any substance specifically named in this list, such specified name of the substance, or, in the case of any substance included but not specifically named in this list, the name most commonly applied to the substance in the English language in the Pharmacopoeias of Great Britain and the United States of America, or in the British Pharmaceutical Codex or other recognised authority, and also the quantity or proportion of the drug present in the goods.
(f a) In the case of medicines and medicinal preparations for internal or external use, if the goods contain methylated spirits the trade description shall include a statement setting out in clear and prominent characters, and in the following form, the percentage of such substance contained in the goods, viz.. “This preparation contains * per cent. by volume of methylated spirit.”
†(f b) In the case of cultures and preparations of bacteria, yeasts, and similar micro-organisms, intended for medicinal purposes or for use as or in the preparation of articles of food or drink for man, the trade description shall include a statement as to the activity of the micro-organisms present, and as to freedom of the culture or preparation from disease-producing micro-organisms, and shall also include a statement as to the date up to which the culture or preparation will remain active.
(g) In the case of manures the trade description, shall be indelibly branded upon the bags or other coverings, and shall include a statement of the name and percentage of each principal
* Quantity to be stated.
† Regulation (f b) to come into operation on 1.4.11.
8 (continued)—
active constituent of the manure in terms of one or more of the following, as the case requires, viz.:—Nitrogen, Available Phosphoric Acid, and Potash (K2O).
(h) In the case of articles of apparel the trade description shall state the nature of the principal material of which the articles are made.
Where articles of apparel are manufactured of fibrous material containing not more than 10 per cent, of fibre other than the preponderating fibre, the name of the preponderating fibre (e.g., “Wool”) may be used to indicate the nature of the material. In other cases the trade description shall set out the names of the principal fibres present in the material, or, alternatively, describe the material as being made of the preponderating fibre “and Other Fibres” (e.g., “Wool and Other Fibres”).
(i) In the case of piece goods intended for or commonly used in the manufacture of articles of apparel the trade description shall specify the names of the principal fibres of which the material is composed.
Where the material does not contain more than 10 per cent. of fibre other than the preponderating fibre, the name of the preponderating fibre may be used in the trade description to indicate the nature of the material. In other cases the trade description shall set out the names of the principal fibres present in the material, or, alternatively, describe the material as being made of the preponderating fibre “and Other Fibres” (e.g., “Wool and Other Fibres”). In cases where any substance (other than ordinary dressing) has been used in the preparation or manufacture which has the effect of loading or weighting the material the word “Loaded” or “Weighted” shall also be included in the trade description.
(j) In the case of boots and shoes manufactured wholly or partly from leather or any imitation thereof, the trade description shall set out the principal material from which they are made, and, unless the soles are solid leather, without admixture or addition other than ordinary fillers of cork or of waterproofed felt, shall state the nature of the admixture or addition, and a statement of the material or materials composing the sole shall, in addition, be conspicuously, legibly, and indelibly stamped upon or impressed into the outer surface of the sole of each boot or shoe.
8 (continued)—
(k) In the case of leather containing any loading of any mineral or other weighting substance, the trade description shall include a statement setting out the name of each loading substance contained in the leather, and the percentage thereof. Provided that the following shall not be deemed to be loading substances within the meaning of this regulation:—
In the case of sole leather—glucose and sugar to the extent of not more than 3 per cent. taken together, and fats and oils to the extent of not more than 5 per cent. taken together; and
In the case of leather other than sole leather—glucose and sugar to the extent of not more than 3 per cent. taken together, and fats and oils used in the manufacture and preparation of the leather.
(l) In the case of gold jewellery the carat quality shall be conspicuously set out in the trade description applied to the goods, and shall also, where practicable, be legibly stamped or engraved upon each article.
In the case of jewellery wholly or partly covered by gold, the words “Rolled Gold,” “Gold Cased,” “Gold Plated,” or “Gilt,” as the case requires, shall be conspicuously set out in the trade description applied to the goods, and shall also, where practicable, be legibly stamped upon each article.
In the case of sliver jewellery not marked with a British hallmark, the degree of millesimal fineness (e.g., “·925 fine”) shall be conspicuously set out in the trade description applied to the goods, and the number indicating such degree of millesimal fineness shall also, where practicable, be legibly stamped or engraved upon each article.
In the case of jewellery which, not being gold or silver, nor coated with gold or silver, is coloured to represent gold or silver or gold and silver, the words “Imitation Jewellery” shall be conspicuously set out in the trade description applied to the goods, and the word “Imitation” shall also, where practicable, be legibly stamped upon each article.
(m) In the case of agricultural seeds, the trade description shall state the names of the seeds and their condition as to soundness, cleanness, and newness.*
(n) In the case of plants, the trade description shall state the names of the plants and their condition as to freedom from or affection by any disease or pest.
* Note.—Trade descriptions as to soundness, cleanness, and newness
This is an opening excerpt, not the complete document.