9.00-16 ND Tyres & the tyranny of distance

[motto]

I have just imported some 9.00-16 bar tread tyres from the U.S. for my Dodge weapons carrier and wish to share my experience with other Aussie forum members that may be thinking of doing something similar.
The best price I could find was from Wallace Wade of Texas at $190 ea. I ordered six so as I would have the option of using them on my 6x6 or the 4x4. Big Mistake!! As I was aware, this put me over the $1,000 limit over which GST has to be payed. As the total cost of the shipment including freight was just over $1,900 I assumed I would have to pay an extra $190 at this end and was quite prepared to accept that.
The way that it actually panned out was that it put me in the clutches of Customs and Quarantine and that was when the fun began. To cut a long story short, I spent a total of 10 hours away from home involving two trips to the airport 60km each way. Qantas hit me over $90 in fees and charges, Quarantine charged $140 for the inspection which required my going back the next day and Customs and GST cost a total of $314
In the final analysis it cost just short of $550 at this end to get the tyres from the airport giving a total all up cost per tyre of just over $400 not to mention the inconvenience and angst.
How much of this would have been avoided if the purchase cost had been below $1,000 I don't know but I was told that it would have cost me between 1 and 2 hundred dollars more to employ an agent to do the clearance. Also I could have been charged $44 a day for storage for each day between arrival and pick up.
I got off lightly.
David