Glow in the Dark Pine Cone for AUS$470

Ever wonder if a pine cone treated with Gamma 25 could light up a whole Christmas tree?

If I had AUD$470 to spare and thought a radiation-infused ornament on the Christmas tree wouldn't scare away Santa, I might have let the Australia Quarantine Office help me with this little experiment...

But I decided to cut my losses, pay $80 to destroy the "one piece pine cone xmas ornament" and save the planet all at the same time.

I have to hand it to the Australian Quarantine office, they are very efficient. They spotted the single pine cone xmas decoration that was in my shipment which as a plant/living organism had the potential of bringing in bugs/diseases which in all seriousness is a threat to Australia.

Yet am I wrong to think that if in my whole shipment of 2.5 containers, only one pine cone was qurantined- isn't it a bit extreme to say I either had to pay $470 to have it treated or $80 to have it destroyed? Where do these dollar amounts come from? Maybe $40 to toss the first item (a small pine cone) and $80 if they found more than one item?

Check out the letter from the shipping company alerting me of my Australian Quarantine violation... and imagine my first thought when I read it, "$80 to toss the pine cone?"