Co-location of Quarantine
Approved Premises
A Guide for Operators
Version 1.3
December 2015
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Version history
Date
Version
Changes to document
December 2007
1.0
First release
Industry Partnerships Unit
April 2014
1.1
Updated to reflect Department of Agriculture branding
and templates
Industry Arrangements
Management Program
July 2014
1.2
Updated to reflect the change to non-conformity
management of co-located networks
Approved Arrangements
Section
December 2015
1.3
Updated to include structuring a co-located network,
examples of how fees are applied.
Approved Arrangements
Section
Department of Agriculture and Water Resources
Co-location of Quarantine Approved Premises: A Guide for Operators
Changed by
2
Summary
This document outlines the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (the department) policy
for the co-location of Quarantine Approved Premises (QAPs) by explaining the:

Eligibility requirements of a facility to be approved as a co-located network.

Fees and charges that are applicable QAPs in a co-located network.

How the QAP General Polices are applied to QAPs in a co-located network.

How the renewals process is applied to collocated networks

How to structure co-located networks.
Background
Co-location is a system of approval under which the department can approve multiple facilities sharing a
common Australian Business Number (ABN) and a Senior Manager and operating within a single physical
site as a QAP under a single approval fee.
Definitions
Definitions that are not included within the Approved Arrangements Glossary located on the
department’s website can be found in the most recent edition of the Macquarie Dictionary or in the
Quarantine Act 1908.
Additional reference material
The following reference material contains information that relates to the application of this document,
they are all available on the departments website:

Approved Arrangements Glossary

QAP Conditions of Approval

QAP Class Criteria

QAP- Containment facilities multiple room approval

Charging Guidelines 2015-16
Department of Agriculture and Water Resources
Co-location of Quarantine Approved Premises: A Guide for Operators
3
Why co-locate QAPs?
Since its implementation the co-location policy has provided benefits to institutions operating
multiple facilities. Some of the identified benefits include:

potential cost savings through the institution incurring one approval fee for multiple facilities

a single point of contact and management for quarantine, resulting in:

increased quarantine awareness

better communication flow with the department

a focused responsibility of quarantine issues by the organisation

efficiencies in time, organisation and delivery of audits of large premises.
Although co-location can be undertaken for all classes of QAPs, it is of particular relevance to class 5
Operators as the implementation of the new containment criteria requires approval of the space
(room/laboratory) to a specific level of containment. As a result there are potential financial
advantages, where an institution may currently have multiple rooms registered under a single
approval.
Co-location is not mandatory and you will need to make a commercial decision based on the benefits
of co-location versus the risk of a nonconformity potentially affecting quarantine related activities at
all co-located premises.
I want to co-locate, am I eligible?
To be eligible for co-location, three mandatory criteria must be met.
1. Common Senior Manager
The Senior Manager nominated by your organisation as the person responsible for the management of
quarantine activities and any quarantine issues at the premises must be common between the ‘parent’
and all co-located ‘child’ premises.
Example A: One university, one parent site
One parent site: University of
Quarantine
School of Science
(parent premises)
School of
Forestry
(child premises)
Lab 1
Lab 2
(child)
(child)
 One parent site
 One Senior Manager
 Several premises under one co-location
arrangemen
 Both schools are suspended if a critical
nonconformity occurs in one of the schools.
Senior Manager: The Dean
In this example ‘the Dean’ is the nominated Senior Manager and is responsible for the quarantine
activities of the School of Science and the School of Forestry.
Department of Agriculture and Water Resources
Co-location of Quarantine Approved Premises: A Guide for Operators
4
2. All co-located premises are located at the one physical site address
All QAPs to be co-located must be located within a single site address. If there are buildings containing
facilities you wish to co-locate but they are separated by a public road the co-location policy cannot be
applied. The buildings will be considered as two sites and co-location can only be undertaken within
each site (see Example B below).
Example B: One university, two parent sites
Site A: University of
Quarantine
Site B: University of
Quarantine
School of Forestry
School of Forestry
(parent premises)
(parent premises)
Lab 1
Lab 2
Lab 1
Lab 2
Lab 3
(child)
(child)
(child)
(child)
(child)
Senior Manager:
Senior Manager:
Professor Tree
Professor Tree





Two parent sites – Site A and Site B
Site A and B separated by an arterial road
One Senior Manager for both sites
One approval fee charged to Site A
One approval fee charged to Site B.
The University of Quarantine may be physically located in the suburbs of Barton (Site A) where it has
two laboratories, and Civic (Site B) where it has three laboratories. Between the campuses is a main
arterial route for Canberra traffic and is also used by the university as a boundary for the two
campuses. The two campuses must therefore be considered as two separate physical sites. The Barton
site may choose to co-locate its two laboratories and in turn the Civic site may co-locate its three
laboratories, but co-location of all premises cannot be applied.
3. All QAPs belong to one organisation or company
All approvals within the site must be registered and operated under a single legal entity.
Department of Agriculture and Water Resources
Co-location of Quarantine Approved Premises: A Guide for Operators
5
Fees
The charges for compliance monitoring activities are still applicable to each QAP within the co-located
network as defined in the department’s Charging Guidelines 2015-16. The application for renewal of
approval fee will only be applied to the nominated parent QAP and covers all child QAPs in the
network. The following case studies explain how fees will be applied in different circumstances.
New applicant applying for a co-located network
A currently unapproved applicant submits an application for three new QAPs. Once the individual
QAPs are approved they are then co-located into a new network. The applicant will be charged:
 one application levy
 application assessment time as a fee for service for each QAP.
 audit fees for each QAP within the network.
 single renewal fee, applied to the arrangement, when renewal is due.
Existing QAP operator applying for a co-located network
A QAP operator submits an application for three new QAPs under their current arrangement. Once
the individual QAPs are approved they are then co-located into a new network. The QAP operator will
be charged:
 application assessment time as a fee for service for each new QAP.
 audit fees for each QAP within the network and existing arrangement.
 single renewal fee, applied to the arrangement, when renewal is due.
New QAP added to an existing co-located network
A QAP Operator submits an application for a new QAP to be added to an existing co-located network.
Once the new QAP is approved it is added to the existing co-located network. The QAP operator will
be charged:
 application assessment time as a fee for service for new QAP.
 audit fees for each QAP within the network and existing arrangement.
 single renewal fee, applied to the arrangement, when renewal is due.
Existing QAPs consolidated in a new or existing co-located network
A QAP Operator submits a request to change their QAP approvals so that two existing QAPs are
consolidated to one QAP. This is considered a variation to the original approval. Once a decision has
been made on the variation, the QAP operator will be charged:
 application assessment time as a fee for service for the variation to their original approval.
 audit fees for each QAP within the arrangement.
 single renewal fee, applied to the arrangement, when renewal is due.
Department of Agriculture and Water Resources
Co-location of Quarantine Approved Premises: A Guide for Operators
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Structuring a co-located network
There are situations where it is impracticable to have refrigerators, cabinets, etc. located within the
laboratory itself. These external storage devices should not be individually ‘registered’ as part of the
co-located site. These areas must be documented for audit purposes. Appropriate security must be
agreed to (e.g. padlocks, etc.) in order for goods subject to quarantine to be maintained within these
external storage devices.
In the case of QAP Class 5.2 - 5.4 Containment Facilities, Third Party Assessors will be required to
audit all registered premises against the applicable Australian / NZ standard. This is why items such
as refrigerators cannot be considered a QAP. Refer to the Approved Premises Criteria for detailed
description of physical requirements for placement of refrigerators/storage etc.
Within one building three laboratories/rooms may require approval as QAPs. See Example C below.
If the three are co-located, one QAP must be selected as the ‘Parent Premises’. The remaining two
QAPs would then be linked as ‘the child’ to this Premises. Quarantine areas (e.g. store rooms and
refrigerators) located outside of the QAP but still within the building must be linked to either a Parent
and/or a Child Premises.
Example C: Co-located network including store room and fridge
Uni of Quarantine
Child 1
Co-located
premises
showing
relationship
between
Parent and
Child
Parent
Lab 2
Store
Child 2
1
Fridge
Location
of Store &
‘Fridge
noted in
QPR
comments
field
In order to be able to apply these principles as they are intended, it must be understood what
constitutes the “containment barrier”. The containment barrier is defined as:
“the physical structures/barriers, such as the walls, doors, floors, ceilings which comprise a fully
enclosable space. The room and its support facilities provides secondary physical containment in
the event of the failure of the primary barrier (eg. Biological safety cabinet)”.
A quarantine containment barrier provides protection of the environment external to the laboratory
through a combination of facility design and quarantine practices.
Department of Agriculture and Water Resources
Co-location of Quarantine Approved Premises: A Guide for Operators
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Containment facilities multiple room approval
The department may allow multiple spate rooms to be approved as a single QAP provided
requirements for quarantine containment are met. For further information refer to the document
‘Quarantine Approved Premises – Containment facilities multiple room approval’ available on the
department’s website.
Movement of goods subject to quarantine
Relevant class criteria, under which the premises operate, outline the requirements for the movement
of goods subject to quarantine between co-located premises
Application of the QAP General Policies
Each QAP that is part of a co-located network is subject to individual compliance measures. This
means that any QAP that is part of a co-located network is treated as a separate, ‘stand-alone’ QAP for
the purposes of monitoring compliance and addressing non-compliance, including:
 determining the audit results
 determining the audit rates, and
 taking suspension and/or revocation action
Renewal of premises approvals
A failure to complete the renewal requirements for the parent premises at each renewal period will
result in suspension of the parent and all child premises. Should a co-located ‘child’ premises fail to
complete the renewal requirements, the approval for that premises would expire, however all other
facilities co-located under the same ‘parent’ premises would not be affected.
Review
This document is subject to regular review to ensure it continues to be relevant, effective and fit for
purpose.
The department reserves the right to assess and review the ongoing validity of this document, the QAP
Conditions of Approval and the QAP Class Criteria at any time to ensure that the requirements continue
to align with legislation, government policy and the relevant operating environment in meeting both
departmental and industry needs.
Department of Agriculture and Water Resources
Co-location of Quarantine Approved Premises: A Guide for Operators
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