an email if your registered

And all of my details are correct so I assume that they place the onus on you to know hence my warning - has anyone here actually received an email warning of expiry ??? 

Yes,  I got an email just a couple of weeks ago.

My EPIRB is a Paynes Wessex and it's battery expiry date is this month.  My old man made some enquiries with a boating store last week about getting a new battery fitted and apparently there is now no Paynes Wessex agent in WA and the unit would need to go to Victoria.  He was told that it has to be posted as a dangerous good (because of the battery) at a cost of somewhere around $200 (that might be return post, not sure), so it would be an expensive exercise when the cost of a new battery and labour is aqdded on top of postage.

Does anyone know if there are regulations stipulating that a Paynes Wessex agent has to fit the battery?

And if that is not the case, does anyone know of anywhere in Perth that can fit a battery to a Paynes Wessex unit?  Battery World maybe?

was going to cost 180 bucks plus postage to eastern states with a 2 week turnaround .just bought a new one instead

Replaced my old 406 with a new GPS 406 just recently. Didnt recieve any notification of expiry. Just by chance i check all my safety gear everytime before i go out(had to borrow a mates for one day) and promptly bought the new one as soon as i could. Was pleasantly suprised how cheap they have become and longer battery lifes. My old 406 cost $485.00 5 years ago. The new GPS 406 i just bought cost $389.00 but has a 10 year battery life! I think my old 406 cost so much five years ago because the older 121.5 was still in use though.

 My 406 has a 10 year battery life but the registration only goes for 3 years.... Do I need to get a new one or can I just re-register the same unit.....seems a waste to have to get rid of it 7 years before the battery goes....

The batteries in some epirbs are classed dangerous goods due to lithium.  https://www.whitworths.com.au/main_departments.asp?cat=144&Cat1Descr=Safety+Equipment&Cat2=460&Cat2Descr=EPIRB%27s%2FPLB%27s

The models with the flame logo on the right are classed dangerous.  I used to work at Whitworths a year or so ago and was surprised to hear of people (esp sailors flying over east for competitions) unable to fly with their plb or epirb due to the lithium batteries.  Looking at the list there, there are only two they are now selling with the dangerous icon but only a year ago there was probably 1/2 the models on sale were classed dangerous.

As Buz said the cost and life span of a gps enabled epirb just about nullifies the price of replacing a battery on the old model and the gps enabled version is so much easier for rescuers to find you.  On the old model, If you were miles offshore and unable to transmit your position by VHF DSC or some other means.  You set off the Epirb, signal goes out to satellites which triangulated your rough position but the RCC AMSA search crews would fly a plane out to the area and do a search pattern looking for your signal on a radar screen.  This would show up as a single dot on the screen as they(if they) got close to the location of the epirb(bummer if it sunk).  This would stretch into a line of dots leading to your position with a ring surrounding you when they were close.  But if it was poor weather, dark night and you are clinging to a raft/wreck they still dont know exactly where you are until they are on top of you.  With a gps enabled epirb, you eliminate all that extra time between emergency signal going out and the rescuers 'mowing the lawn' in a rough area. They just head to the signal.

Cortez474: No, you do not have to ditch the epirb early, just reregister.  Its more to pick up if you have changed vehicle, vessel, home address, ph number etc.