Phuket gets new Aust consulate
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AUSTRALIA is opening a consulate-general in Phuket to more directly serve the growing number of its citizens visiting the resort island and the rest of southern Thailand.
“Australia would like to establish this new consulate-general quickly and we are pleased to be able to start working with Thailand on the process to set up the mission,” Australian Ambassador Paul Robilliard said yesterday.
Australians visiting Phuket have doubled since 2007, he said.
The Phuket office will be staffed to provide full consular, passport and notarial services.
Until it opens, Michelle Hawryluk remains Australia’s honorary consul in Phuket overseeing the provinces of Phuket, Krabi and Phang Nga.
She will continue to provide consular assistance, but honorary consuls cannot perform notarial services, or accept or process passport applications.
Information on consular services is available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Smart Traveller website www.smartraveller.gov.au.
