shipping to Australia-cost and advice

[canihaveacoffeeplease]

Inspired by the other moving thread about breakables, I suddenly realised this was a good place to ask about rough costs. We'd be planning to take almost everything we own, reasonable sized 3 bed plus hopefully 1 car (mini) in a 40ft container.

Who did you use, how much did it cost (roughly), how long did it take, and did you encounter any issues, e.g. With customs etc? Any recommendations/definite no nos etc?

Thanks!

[HPandBaconSandwiches]

Our container arrived recently in Aus.

We used Movecorp Birmingham based but national company. Also heard good things about Doree Bonner. We took pretty much everything in a 4 bed house, 40foot high container (bigger than 40 foot) and it was about £7500 with another 4% of the overall value of the whole shipment as insurance. We had a full packing service thank goodness. It took 3 experienced packers 3 full days to pack the house up. Would have taken me 2 weeks with the kids "helping".

Took 9 weeks door to door. Customs etc had a good search through and found a pine cone in the Christmas decos I'd missed. Otherwise all good. We got it all just over 2 weeks after it arrived at port.

Don't organise the shipment to leave the day before you go, give it a spare day. Stay with family if you can. If not, keep the spare duvet, old pillow/towel, that you were going to throw out and use them camping style for the last couple of nights. Paper plates and take aways.

Think very carefully about taking the car. I'm sure you'll know you have to have it altered when you arrive for emissions and there's various other paperwork issues. We didn't bring ours, not worth it.

Biggest tip: start early with de cluttering. It took months for me.
Can't take: liquids, alcohol, candles (beeswax issue), pine cones, feathers, anything dirty. Any outdoor furniture or bikes must be immaculate and smell of Jeyes fluid - not just clean, they need to look like new. That also applies to walking shoes and wellies. Batteries all have to be removed (explosion risk).

Do take anything useful. It'll cost a lot more to replace here than to ship. We brought fridge, freezer, washer, dryer, microwave etc and very glad we did. But they do all have to be v v clean or will get very skanky in the hold of a ship.

Don't take the stuff you have to buy immediately. We rented furniture but bought bedding, basic crockery, towels etc. Ended up with a lots of pillows etc! If you're not bringing outdoor furniture then buy that when you come and use as your main furniture til shipment arrives.

Consider going business class to get the enormous luggage for the trip out. Air freight costs about the same as the extra on the ticket and it's much nicer. Sky scanner is great for finding a good deal.

Have a look at Pomsinoz for more tips and info including info on taking your car.

Good luck. It's very very stressful, but it's worth it.

[echt]

This will help:

www.agriculture.gov.au/travelling/moving-immigrating

The costs of taking a car are huge and don't stop when it gets there, as it has to pass tests to be declared OK to drive.