The US government obviously has no control over what China sends to Australia, so it this case the cat is out of the bag. However I can assure you the limit is still real for US companies: https://oem.flir.com/support/support-center/knowledge-base/a...
Cheers for the follow-up .. and that's certainly interesting.
Chinese 50 fps thermal cameras and scopes have been about for a while now, they've been supplying the industrial specialist market even longer than the general consumer goods market.
I note the US export control is limited by licence .. which likely means the US high frame rate thermal gear is equally as available in AU as (say) TI DSP chips were when they first iterated that family (ie. restricted by licence but easy to purchase in allied countries if you just sign a form stating you're not supplying them to countries in the Chinese sphere of influence, etc.)