Closing the border on Australia’s domestic elephant ivory trade

Australia, one of the few high-income jurisdictions yet to implement a comprehensive domestic ivory ban,  has an active online market for elephant (Elephantidae ssp.) ivory despite long-standing CITES prohibitions on commercial international ivory trade and CITES Parties’ commitments to close domestic ivory markets or, at minimum, to implememt measures ensuring they do not contribute to poaching or illegal trade . Australia’s online domestic ivory market has not been quantified in in terms of its scale, composition, or transparency since these domestic-market commitments were made. We conducted snapshot monitoring of surface-web vendors (online auction houses and webstores) between January and June 2025, and sampled Facebook Marketplace every two weeks between March and May 2025. We recorded 1,698 ivory listings from 70 vendors, representing AUD 653,101 in auction sales and AUD 573,997 in webstore asking prices; unsold auction lots carried dealer estimates of AUD 127,400-$189,765. Indicators of legality were rare: (one stated an ivory policy and four mentioned CITES). Listing-level transparency was low, <1% of listings provided documentation; 26% stated provenance, 9% country of origin and 62% an approximate age. Most listings were auctions (77%) with high sell-through (87% sold). Facebook Marketplace yielded 92 diverse listings across five sampling sessions. Collectively, a sizable, unregulated online market persists We recommend harmonised national rules (or equivalent cooperative legislation), mandatory documentation at point of listing, closer monitoring of vendors by state/territory enforcement, and strengthened platform-based detection and takedown processes; howevera comprehensive market closure, would most closely align Australia with reforms adopted in many international jurisdictions.