Which shipping company is best???

[Guest maggiep841983]

Hi everyone I was just wondering if there was anybody who could recommend the cheapest or best shipping company that they have used as I am just starting to look through them and they all seem the same? I would be looking to move some stuff to Perth in a few months so I would appreciate any help at all!! Cheers xx:smile::smile:

[Guest Furball]

We've been getting quotes in and so far Simpsons seems quickest to talk to us, politest and cheapest... so although we've not actually got any one in and round the house so far, they're ahead by miles on our scale!!

[Guest mackemsok]

Hi there

We used John Mason yesterday and the 2 guys who packed our stuff (Andy and Ste) were excellent. I had great piece of mind and they were so professional. The total cost was £3445 including insurance for 20 foot container.

Next time i see my stuff will be in Perth - Hurray!

Sharon

[Guest]

We used PSS, the guys in the UK were outstanding & tther agent at this end was Kent who we were happy with too - especially the guys that did the unpacking. £7000 for a 40ft container. Left UK 31/10 and delivered 9/1 - faster than anyone else quoted.

 

Jules

[Guest donovan]

Hiya Eagle Freight, give Onkar a call, there is a few people on here that have used them and say they were excellent.

 

http://www.eaglegroup-online.com/

 

 

If you do ask him for a quote, tell him Sarah @ Gold Coast relocations recommended you to give them a call, I am sure he will look after you.

 

Sarah x

[Guest Bulldozersanddirt]

Hi there, We had heaps of quotes in the region of £5500-£7000, but no-one would pack any of my workshop odds & sods. Two friends had used Transatlantic Shipping of Eastwood, Notts so we gave them a try. We paid £1400 for a 20ft to Fremantle, with 3 free hours to load and £33/hr after. We are glad that we packed and loaded ourselves as it was no hassle and saved us a fortune. We rented storage space at a local storage company (who were also excellent and 'adopted' us) making sure that we had the same total floor area as a 20ft container. The main reason for doing this was that we couldn't get a container truck down our road, plus it was easy to pack and wrap then take it each day in the car to the store. We spent a few weeks acquiring boxes and polystyrene (plasma TVs are a good source, and most shops want rid of boxes), trying to get lots of the same size. The storage place had a forktruck to help our pre-prepared heap including 3 motorcycles, and we press-ganged 4 stout friends on the day (asking the storage which was the quietest day etc)

The woman who runs Transatlantic is a true diamond and provided a friendly efficient service. She is a shipping agent, so the area in the UK is irrelevant.

For the average family with average possessions it would be easy-peasy. Don't even think of bringing matresses as you probably could do with new ones anyway. We actually acquired some old single foam mattresses to wedge between things for protection! Don't know what customs thought of us...!

The real grief and rip-offs started on the docks at Freo, but this is another saga (longer than Beowulf). It was a pain because we were not moving to Perth but 450km away.

If I was to do this all again, I would sell everything and come with hand baggage only! We also shipped out a cubic metre (which is HUGE) including a lathe, blanket chest, toolbox, 3 welders, antique rocking chair, piano stool etc etc that we had assumed wouldn't fit in the container, but probably would have. Again, Glyn at Transatlantic came to our rescue.

Regards, Jules

[Guest Bulldozersanddirt]

I forgot: our near neighbour came out at the same time and she used Crown Relocations (removals?) for the whole service. They packed everything very well. I watched them to get some tips! They even packed a dirty plate and cutlery from under her son's bed!!!

They were supposed to unpack it all again at Perth end but she said that the agent company in Perth seemed very reluctant to do this, wanting to just dump the whole lot in her hallway and drive.

Sounds about right...

Jules

[Guest slipshot]

PSS and 40ft container for us as well. COntainer on it's way - just over £6k all in after some good negotiation...

[Guest The "legdes"]

Hi Guys,

 

We are in the middle of getting quotes so it was good to read your posts.

So far we've had three. David Dale Removals: £5300 for 40 foot container, packing etc; Pickfords 40 foot container £4600 and one who didn't turn up Kingston - so guess what we won't be using them.

So far most impressed by Pickfords -good package and seem professional. Robinsons come tomorrow.

Have thought about doing it ourselves but the customs detail and deliver at the other end is putting us off. Anyone had any experince of DIY at the other end ? How easy or difficult is it ?

Also what if you don't have a delivery address ? We plan to do our reccie when we land so don't yet know exactly where we'll be.

[Guest Mikekat]

We are using Pickfords, and our stuff is on route. They were very professional, and we chose them mainly because of this and the good price. We paid £2600 for 20 cu ft.

 

We contacted 4 in all, Pickfords contacted us within 24hrs and arranged a home interview, Pss contacted us with a quote by email, out of the other 2, 1 contacted us 2 weeks later and the other - we never heard from.

 

Pickfords were very thorough and we elected that they pack our belongings. We were amazed by how well they packed everything - and hastily moved the kids in case they were packed too!!

 

Pickfords have maintained email contact since our arrival in Aus, and have advised us that the ship is due in dock on 5th March. Then we'll have to wait for customs to process us.

[Guest Furball]

Hi MikeKat - where is your stuff being shipped to in Aus? Does the £2,600 include the packing? That is soo cheap!

 

Many thanks

 

Fx

[Guest Bulldozersanddirt]

Hi Legdes,

We packed our own container (as detailed in elsewhere), and found the whole process cheap and easy- until we had to deal with the Byzantine, crooked process at the other end! Because we were moving to a house 450km from Perth we decided, for logistical reasons, to use an agent to deal with the Customs etc in Freo. This was a nightmare, and appears to be designed to confuse and dispirit the poor migrants so that they won’t question the opaque and exorbitant fees charged for not-a-lot. We also shipped a cubic metre pallet of rammell, which arrived a couple of days after the container (the container being 2 weeks early, for some reason). We cleared the cubic metre Customs ourselves, and also did the AQIS inspection, and the whole lot was pleasant and easy. We should have done the container ourselves too, but you live and learn.

One thing that made life easy was our attention to cleaning everything that had touched the ground before we had packed it ie Shoes; tyres; garden tools; rotovator (!); vintage hay cutter (!). These items were put at the front of the container with the box of wooden items, just to show that we had thought about it. We made all of this clear on the Inventory. As each box was packed we made a list of every single item that was in it, then typed it into a Word doc at the end of each day. To fill each box completely we packed anything together, so ended up with hay cutter parts with clothes etc etc so the Word doc was a God-send, and still is, for doing a ‘Search’ to find anything. We then ‘condensed’ the list to give to Customs, hoping that it still looked ‘anal’ enough for them to realise that we had conformed to the letter of the law.

It is worth bearing in mind that on top of the quoted fee for a ‘full service pack and ship’ there will still be any costs for AQIS etc.

There are port charges to be paid- through the agent who, we think, deals with the whole ship. The rest of it you can do yourself quite easily.

The other grief entailed the import of my motorcycle: the whole registration process in WA is set up for people coming to live in Perth. Being 450km away, then finding (not mentioned anywhere on the net or in the documentation) that the bike has to go to Welshpool to be inspected, twice, with no appointment system, meaning 4 days in Perth was a real blow. Obviously, the ‘Shiny-bums’ hadn’t realised that not all Poms migrate to Joondalup.

Anyway, for anyone who is interested, I have pasted and edited the following from an email sent to a friend relating the sorry tale of the grief at Freo (it’s a bit of a ramble…):

The simple and cheap process of sending a 20 foot container load of personal possessions 10,000 miles across the world, with a change of ship at Singapore, ended at the side of the SS Maersk Kamakura at Fremantle docks. We didn’t understand the process or system of the ensuing costs and movements but had an agent allocated to what we thought was the entire ships cargo. We went to visit the agent in Fremantle and passed over some documents and an inventory of the goods. The agent seemed really efficient, and gave us a quote for the port charges and customs and quarantine costs. One part of it wasn’t clear so we queried the terminology; this seemed to throw the confident woman into a complete tizzy and eventually she had to go away to ask someone. She came back with an explanation that was obviously a complete load of rubbish so we asked if they had actually dealt with a container of personal possessions before. She assured us that they did them all the time. She had already said that we didn’t have to accept their quote but could go elsewhere, so we did. One part of the quote was for $487 plus GST plus $42 fuel surcharge to get the container from the boat to the bonded storage. This we assumed was at the offices with warehouse that we had visited in O’Connor, about 3km from the docks. We soon learned not to assume anything! Of course this cost seemed astronomical so we reported to my cousins husband who is a truck driver pulling containers out of Freo docks. He was amazed at the high cost and offered to fetch the container and deliver it to our house for “the cost of the diesel and a bed for the night”. He also insisted that the containers weren’t always opened, and sometimes the dogs were sent in or a fumigation ‘bomb’ thrown in. He claimed that they were all X-rayed for contraband and Chinese and that Customs knew from intelligence who was likely to be trying to bring in illicit goods. All of this went against all that we had gleaned so we were totally confused. Fortunately we had obeyed the letter and the spirit of the regulations: jet-washing everything that had come anywhere near the ground, and dousing many items in Jeyes Fluid. The gardening implements were then wrapped in plastic bags, as were the shoes. All wooden items were placed in one box for easy inspection. This all proved later to be the correct and trouble free way to do it.

Of course, the offer came to nothing, especially as we knew that the containers are all unloaded and so to reload it for transport would be ridiculous. There would also be rental to pay for the use of the container

We met a chap who told us that his sister worked for a customs and shipping agent, so we obtained a quote from the company. They were based on the Albany Highway, which we reasoned would be easier to get to for us although further from the docks to cart the container (little did we know…). On the phone they insisted that my Suzuki would need to be steam cleaned by the quarantine people, but I insisted that I would not allow this as it fetches paint off and wrecks electrical items. They said that 99% of all vehicles fail the cleanliness check and have to be cleaned. She then told me that “the gas will have to be taken out”. I told her that the petrol tank was not on the bike but had been dried and packed separately, but she said: “No, the gas in the air-conditioner needs to be removed…” I should have put the phone down at this point, but gamely carried on “So, I can assume that you haven’t ever been on a motorcycle, then?” This worried us greatly but we had run out of time and enthusiasm so gave in and let them process our load.

I took a phone call in the street one day from the freight agents: they wanted to know the value in Australia of my Suzuki. I told them that I had no idea as I had only been in the country for a couple of weeks and had not had time to become familiar with the local bike scene or indeed read any magazines. I also pointed out that the relevant documents said that Customs would assess a value for a vehicle so that they could apply 10% GST and any duty payable, so I wasn’t willing nor able to give a value. Eventually I had to phone Customs to sort it all out: The chap insisted that he needed a value from me but I insisted that I couldn’t give one. Eventually I realised that this may go against the whole procedure so I gave a value of £2000, which was definitely an over-estimate but I was pressured, and I was standing in the street at the time. The officer then wanted a value for the parts of my dismantled bikes, which I had already established by phone from the UK would not incur any GST charge. Of course I had no record of this conversation, and anyway the person had finally decided that I “may have to pay GST on the frames, oh, and perhaps the wheels…” I was most adamant that these parts were just personal possessions, and had been in my possession for around 25 years. I had a house to build, a job to find and a life to get on with so would probably get round to reassembling them when I was 75. After much haggling the officer said that we could say that the parts were worth £200 and we could say the Suzuki was worth £1800, making the total the same as his original estimate of £2000. I asked if he was happy with this, and he said that he was. An Aussie Jobsworth, I suspect. He then wanted a value for the ‘aircraft parts’, but at this point I lost it and told him that they were bits of no value and if he tried to charge me anything I would personally drive up to Freo and chuck them in the dock. There was a long silence then he said: “OK, we’ll forget about those”. It was only much later that I remembered that the parts included a brand new pair of Cessna mainwheels, tyres and brake discs with callipers, and a nose-wheel and tyre. Fortunately I had listed them as ‘Cleveland wheels’ so he possibly didn’t know what they were.

The injury was that the robbing swines at the freight company then charged me at the rate of $2.5 to the £ when the buy price on that day was $2.23, so it cost $507 for the duty on the bike, for some reason.

We were finally informed that the container had arrived. This turned out to be two weeks early, and coincided with the cubic metre of rubbish which only made things worse as my 7.5 tonne truck licence isn’t valid in Australia. There was a lot of confusing advice about what I could and couldn’t drive, or hire, to go up to Freo to fetch our possessions. This is quite normal for Australia, and I’m sure that I could have got various opinions from the licensing authorities. I was assured by my friend Graham that I would be limited, as he was, to a 2.5 tonne truck.

I promptly went to the truck hire and fetched a 5 tonne Isuzu. By this time it was 10am with a 5 hour drive ahead to get to Fremantle. We made steady progress and arrived at the bonded storage at 3 pm only to find that there was a socking great ship parked there because the store was about 200 metres from the dockside. The company only had its office in Bentley and was separate from the bonded store company! This was the first dawning that we had been ripped off with the fuel and cartage charge. The next obstacle was that the cargo could not be released to us without the authorisation of the freight agent, so a call was made but the person dealing with it was not available. He failed to call back until 4 pm and got a huge mouthful from us as we explained that we didn’t have a credit card, and No, we couldn’t bring a cheque across Perth in the rush hour in a 5 tonne truck because the bonded store closed at 4.30 pm. He finally conceded that we could load some of the stuff into the truck that day, but would have to pay the bill before we could load the rest the next morning. The whole place was very grubby and chaotic, but we were really pleased to spot our familiar boxes and my Suzuki standing on a series of pallets. All seemed well at first glance but then we spotted the shower screen lying on the floor with a clearly labelled large painting on top of it. Sitting on top of both was the 60 kg iron casting of my hay cutter. Unbelievably, when we examined them later, neither was broken.

As an indication of the lax security, we were asked where we wanted ‘the boat’. This was a brand new speedboat on a trailer that happened to be standing next to our possessions. It came with a BMW motorcycle, and we could have loaded it on too! We were still loading at 4.45 pm so we called it a day and decided to return as early as possible the next day. When I asked the young chap on the forktruck why he was still working, he replied that he could see that we were having a ****ty day so thought that he should help out. I finally packed it in and sent him off. He turned round in the yard and returned to say: “Just in case no one has said this to you yet - Welcome to Australia!” This really touched us for some reason.

We set off from the docks to a friend’s North of Perth for a bed for the night and to store some stuff in her shed. She didn’t seem too chuffed but we went anyway. We soon had the bikes, steel tool cupboard, cement mixer, gym and vintage hay cutter inside her garage. The next morning we were up bright and early to get down to the storage for when it opened at 7.00am. We cruised through Scarborough Beach and then Cottesloe looking for an internet café that was open so we could send a bank transfer to the freight agent, but eventually roared a huge string of expletives and gave up. I decided that they would have to sing for it for a while and switched off the phones.

We had assumed that security at the bonded store would be extremely tight, but it seemed that anyone wearing a fluorescent safety vest could wander in off the dock or street and mosey about amongst our personal possessions unchallenged. We did just that and proceeded to load up the rest of the stuff into the truck. The previous day we had offered our passports as ID, and were met with an amazed look: “No-one has shown us those before…” We were assured by some of the minions that our heap of stuff would not all fit in the truck, so we thought that we would have to pack as much in as we could then drive up to our friend’s, whilst she was at work, and decant enough into her garage to allow us to return to the bonded store and squeeze the rest in the truck. We wandered out into the street several times to go in a different entrance to use the loo or to have a cuppa in the workers’ snap-cabin and no-one seemed to care.

We were amazed at the great variety of vehicles being imported, mainly cars from the UK such as a Jensen Interceptor and two really rusty Jowett shells. The previous day a container had been delivered that turned out to be full to the top with boxes of red onions from China. AQIS had inspected it and rejected the shipment because the onions had got roots on, and many were starting to sprout. A number of young Chinese girls then arrived, set up tables in the quarantine area under the watchful eyes of the quarantine officer and proceeded to top and tail the cargo of red onions. This was no small task, and soon the place reeked of onions and the quarantine rejection bins started to fill up with what looked to be good big onions. There were literally tonnes of them, so The OH asked if she could have a slack handful to make some soup but was told in no uncertain terms that it was forbidden as they were rejected for importation.

We decided that Customs had not even been to look at our load, and AQIS had possibly only looked at the wooden items. We observed a quarantine visit to the next heap of possessions, and a few select boxes were hunted for and opened which took about a minute to perform. This is charged at $93 for the first half-hour, then $83 for each quarter hour after, plus 10% GST. We wondered how much the absent owner would be charged for the visit!

We chatted to a fellow Pom who was whingeing that he had already paid $4000 in fines/charges and AQIS were still not satisfied with the cleanliness of his stuff, so we wandered over to have a look: He had obviously not bothered at all so deserved all that they threw at him. Not only did he have two petrol strimmers with grass still on them but one of the two mountain bikes actually had horse **** embedded in the tyre treads. Australia was in the grip of an Equine Influenza epidemic at the time, and WA was still free from it so we thought that he should have been packed off home as an Undesirable Alien. We left him trying to brush dog and horse hairs from a pair of trousers that had been pulled from a chest of drawers. We really tried hard to get everything as clinically clean as possible; not just so we could get through the AQIS inspection but because we care about the integrity of the unique environment of flora and fauna in Australia in general, and WA in particular.

I declared to the OH that the whole lot of our goods was “****ing going in the truck one way or another”, and at 1 o’clock it did and we heaved the doors shut. We didn’t sign anything or speak to anyone at all before we drove off, and in fact the whole place was deserted because the Melbourne Cup horse race had just started. We could have driven in and taken anything, which was very disconcerting; we did return the fluorescent jackets to the deserted office.

We then had to go to the Customs House in Freo to sort out the clearance of the cubic metre of goods that had just arrived, but this turned out to be the easiest thing imaginable. We wished that we had known and we could have done the container ourselves. They looked at the inventory and cleared it all without wanting to look at the goods. We phoned AQIS and arranged an inspection in two days time at a different bonded store.

The truck felt decidedly well loaded as it negotiated the road out of Freo, and I had to crawl around some of the mini islands as we headed for Armadale and freedom at the Last Set Of Lights. There was a very distinctive smell in the cab, and I could see the dull red gleam of some Chinese onions tucked behind the middle seat.

We borrowed an open trailer for the journey back to Perth for the next load and set off in the Ford Barge. The bonded store was very big and clean compared with the first one, and we had the impression that it was run in a more professional manner, although someone’s English-registered Morgan was being driven around enthusiastically by one of the employees. The AQIS officer arrived and had a glance at our pile of 12 boxes and, ignoring the antique wooden piano stool and folding rocking chair, wanted to look at a sample of my lathe. I unwrapped a belt guard that was as clean as when it left Myford’s; he asked if that was all we had imported so while we waited for some paperwork to be faxed we related our story. He was amazed when we told him how much the container processing had cost, and informed us that we had been ripped off. He then said that he wouldn’t charge us for his visit because he felt sorry for us! We felt so good that we had a sandwich looking out over the Indian Ocean next to the Damaged Container Repair Centre (best not to see this place until after you have got yours safely...).

Just to confirm my theory about the licence authority: We went to swap our UK driving licences at the Department for Infrastructure and Planning. This took two hours and we seemed to throw the place into turmoil as I wanted to try to transfer my 7.5 tonne truck class over to the Oz licence.

I left with an 8 tonne provisional truck licence and was informed that it also covered a car and a bike.

OH left with a car and full ‘R’ motorcycle licence.

-OH cannot even ride a bicycle (I tried to teach her once).

-I later found that my licence didn’t include a car or full motorcycle licence so I had to return to change it. I could have driven up to 4.5 tonnes on the car licence anyway.

Oh, and I nearly forgot: almost 4 months after the container arrived we received an email with attached invoice for a port charge from a company that we had never heard of, with no contact phone number, and a sender whose name seemed like some Nigerian scammer so we ignored it. A few months later we received a snail mail from a debt collection agency in Queensland, again with few contact details threatening us with the bailiffs if we didn’t pay up within 48 hours. As we have a PO box, this had already expired so I phoned and got nowhere except to get a phone number of the company charging the $250. They claimed that the debt was for rental of the container as it had not been returned to the shipping company for 8 days after it was unpacked! I asked what the **** that had got to do with me, as I never saw the container in Oz. They claimed that because my name was on the Bill of Lading they had chased me up. I told them in no uncertain terms where they could shove their invoice, pointing out that to send anyone an invoice to a UK internet ISP address when the person had just migrated to Oz was completely dumb, then to send the bailiffs to a PO box 4 months after someone has migrated was moronic: who lives at the first address after 4 months in Oz? We heard no more from the opportunist sharks, if indeed it was a genuine invoice.

Having been here for 15 months now, and loving it, we still find that the whole place exists on myths and half-truths. No-one seems to know anything, preferring to tell you anything rather than admit a lack of knowledge. This applies from State government down to the spotty oik in the store.

Hope this is of some use.

[LYNMACMD]

A great read a must for everyone going over

[Guest tigers08]

:unsure:as anyone just taken boxes we want to take kids toys and stuff selling all our big stuff we just wanted to know whats the best company to get boxes and as anyone done this if so what was the cost and how many boxes and do they put them inside a shared container sorry to sound silly any help would be greatfull thanks

[Guest snow white]

we have used doree bonner 3 times and they were fantastic couldnt fault them

lesleyx

[Guest northernxtaipan]

we used Robinsons, the Darlington branch they were very good and wridgways this end have been great to, so far, just waiting to have it delivered, it should be here next week.

[Tracyb37]

Hi

We used a company called White and Co. They came and took all our stuff within 5 days of giving us a quote as we completed on our house sale quicker than expected. They held it in storage for us for two months and only charged us for 4 weeks storage. Shipped out to Oz 15th November, arrived in Oz 23rd December. We were asked to pay quarantine fee of $374 on 20th January as it had cleared customs and we took delivery of it today. We didn't charged for any storage fees while it was in Oz. Everything was there, it had been really well packed, just a couple of broken glasses (which I had wrapped!!). For a 40ft full container including insurance we paid just under £3k. Everyone told us that was too cheap and it would all go wrong, but couldn't fault the guys at either end. Really corteous in the UK and checked everything I had packed and they re-packed quite a bit of it. The guys who delivered to us this morning were really helpful and put the boxes wherever we told them to and also offered to help us unpack everything. I was so excited about getting my stuff I said no, I wanted to do it all myself. It certainly feels like home with all my belongings around me.

 

Tracy

[Guest EVA74]

Hi there

We used John Mason yesterday and the 2 guys who packed our stuff (Andy and Ste) were excellent. I had great piece of mind and they were so professional. The total cost was £3445 including insurance for 20 foot container.

Next time i see my stuff will be in Perth - Hurray!

Sharon

 

We have just had a quote from John Mason for a 20 foot container to Perth and it was £3295 excluding insurance!

 

If you don't mind me asking did you take out their insurance at 3% (plus extra 0.3% for mechanical derangement, plus extra 0.3 pairs/sets cover) or did you arrange your own.

 

Has anyone else arranged their own insurance as a total of 3.6% seems a lot, when you start totting up the estimated replacement value? We reckon at least £15,000 (which is probably on the conservative side!) which would cost an extra £540.

 

We obviously plan to barter when we get the second quote from PSS, but would appreciate any advice

 

Thanks

 

Eva:wink:

[Guest mackemsok]

We have just had a quote from John Mason for a 20 foot container to Perth and it was £3295 excluding insurance!

 

If you don't mind me asking did you take out their insurance at 3% (plus extra 0.3% for mechanical derangement, plus extra 0.3 pairs/sets cover) or did you arrange your own.

 

Has anyone else arranged their own insurance as a total of 3.6% seems a lot, when you start totting up the estimated replacement value? We reckon at least £15,000 (which is probably on the conservative side!) which would cost an extra £540.

 

We obviously plan to barter when we get the second quote from PSS, but would appreciate any advice

 

Thanks

 

Eva:wink:

Hi Eva

I dont mind you asking at all - I got them down to £3120.00 after the intitial quote of £3300 so tell them you have a quote elsewhere to get them down. I did use their insurance at 3% but only insured £10,000 worth of stuff. To be honest I wish I only insured £5,000 to keep the cost down cause when I saw the way they packed the stuff it is very unlikely that there will be any damage its packed so well. The only worry is if the ship goes down:eek:

 

When are you planning on moving out and where are you going

Sharon

[Guest EVA74]

Hi Eva

I dont mind you asking at all - I got them down to £3120.00 after the intitial quote of £3300 so tell them you have a quote elsewhere to get them down. I did use their insurance at 3% but only insured £10,000 worth of stuff. To be honest I wish I only insured £5,000 to keep the cost down cause when I saw the way they packed the stuff it is very unlikely that there will be any damage its packed so well. The only worry is if the ship goes down:eek:

 

When are you planning on moving out and where are you going

Sharon

 

Hi Sharon.

 

Thanks for the info. We're hoping to fly out to Perth (jobs in Kwinana) at the end of April. Just waiting for the e457 approval now and then unfortunately need to give 2 months notice at work!! :sad:. I'm hoping this should be any day now as my Health Requirements were finalised on 2/2 (e457 lodged 23/1). Just hope we can sell the ruddy house now!

 

I think I sent you an e-mail earlier re your extra baggage allowance with Emirates. Have they definately accepted your 457 visa ref for the Extra allowance? If so that's great news.

 

Thanks again

Eva

[Guest mackemsok]

Hi Sharon.

 

Thanks for the info. We're hoping to fly out to Perth (jobs in Kwinana) at the end of April. Just waiting for the e457 approval now and then unfortunately need to give 2 months notice at work!! :sad:. I'm hoping this should be any day now as my Health Requirements were finalised on 2/2 (e457 lodged 23/1). Just hope we can sell the ruddy house now!

 

I think I sent you an e-mail earlier re your extra baggage allowance with Emirates. Have they definately accepted your 457 visa ref for the Extra allowance? If so that's great news.

 

Thanks again

Eva

 

Hi Eva

Yeah the visa was accepted so I got the 50kg's.

We are going to Rockingham so very close to Kwinana, I got a job as a dental business manager in Perth and Scott my OH has a job in the University in Perth as a dental technician. We will end up having some lengthy commute to and from work but we have friends in Rockingham so really want to go there. What jobs have you got? Have you got somewhere to live yet

We have 2 daughters 12 and 18 and they are not coming over until June to give me and Scott time to find a house, get our furniture, get the dogs out of quarentine find a school......the list goes on. That will be hard but necessary to ensure the girls settle in ok.

My furniture went a couple of weeks ago so we are left with a shell here - but would rather be inconvenienced here than over there.

I am really getting excited now cant wait to get there, I am on garden leave from work now so have loads of time to think about our new life...............:biggrin:

Sharon

[Guest EVA74]

Hi Eva

Yeah the visa was accepted so I got the 50kg's.

We are going to Rockingham so very close to Kwinana, I got a job as a dental business manager in Perth and Scott my OH has a job in the University in Perth as a dental technician. We will end up having some lengthy commute to and from work but we have friends in Rockingham so really want to go there. What jobs have you got? Have you got somewhere to live yet

We have 2 daughters 12 and 18 and they are not coming over until June to give me and Scott time to find a house, get our furniture, get the dogs out of quarentine find a school......the list goes on. That will be hard but necessary to ensure the girls settle in ok.

My furniture went a couple of weeks ago so we are left with a shell here - but would rather be inconvenienced here than over there.

I am really getting excited now cant wait to get there, I am on garden leave from work now so have loads of time to think about our new life...............:biggrin:

Sharon

 

Hi Sharon,

 

I'm really excited for you - I'm checking my application daily for updates (getting a bit obsessive!)

 

We both work in waste management and have jobs when we arrive. Haven't sorted a rental yet, but will probably need something furnished for the first 2 months. Hopefully the company will help advise us on areas and help us get something. Seems quite limited on realestate.com. Will also need to sort a cheap car rental until we're settled. God there's so much to think about! At least we only have to look after ourselves at the moment - not got children yet and we are rehoming our cat as she is getting on a bit and we don't think it would be fair on her with all the critters (as she's used to being the hunter!! lol)

 

Anyway, hope everything goes well with the move and new jobs. Good luck!

 

Eva x

[Guest AudBod]

If I was to do this all again, I would sell everything and come with hand baggage only!

 

This was exactly my idea. New Country... New Life... New Everything.

 

I reckon that it would cost just as much to ship over things that I have looked at in the house for a few years, as it would be to replace them brand new in Oz, so why bother. Anyway, the likelihood is that we'd rent furnished accomodation to start with.

 

My plan is to sell everything via ebay, car boot sale, local ads etc. and turn up with whatever clothing we can fit in our cases and a few DVD's and CD's for my daughter. You never know some fool may even give me a couple of Quid for Hubby.

 

Does anyone have any opinions on whether they would have done it this way in reflection, or are there any things that are relly expensive or difficult to get in Oz, that would be worth bringing along.

 

The one thing that I would like to take is the chef in our local takeaway, but he might not appreciate 2 weeks in a storeage container. Still, there is a sign up stating £1 extra for home deliveries over 2 miles, I wonder if that stretches to Oz. :laugh:

[Guest slipshot]

This was exactly my idea. New Country... New Life... New Everything.

 

I reckon that it would cost just as much to ship over things that I have looked at in the house for a few years, as it would be to replace them brand new in Oz, so why bother. Anyway, the likelihood is that we'd rent furnished accomodation to start with.

 

My plan is to sell everything via ebay, car boot sale, local ads etc. and turn up with whatever clothing we can fit in our cases and a few DVD's and CD's for my daughter. You never know some fool may even give me a couple of Quid for Hubby.

 

Does anyone have any opinions on whether they would have done it this way in reflection, or are there any things that are relly expensive or difficult to get in Oz, that would be worth bringing along.

 

The one thing that I would like to take is the chef in our local takeaway, but he might not appreciate 2 weeks in a storeage container. Still, there is a sign up stating £1 extra for home deliveries over 2 miles, I wonder if that stretches to Oz. :laugh:

 

I think it all depends on how much you have and the 'value' of it - but personally I could never have replaced all our stuff for the £6,000 is cost to ship it. Given we insured it for a value of £40,000 and that was fairly conservative, there's now way 6k is going to cover it in Aus, and furniture is in general more expensive here than anywhere else.

 

If you want to start again that's fine, but I think people forget how much they need to start again. Live in an empty house for a while with nothing and you soon realise...

[Guest slipshot]

Hi

We used a company called White and Co. They came and took all our stuff within 5 days of giving us a quote as we completed on our house sale quicker than expected. They held it in storage for us for two months and only charged us for 4 weeks storage. Shipped out to Oz 15th November, arrived in Oz 23rd December. We were asked to pay quarantine fee of $374 on 20th January as it had cleared customs and we took delivery of it today. We didn't charged for any storage fees while it was in Oz. Everything was there, it had been really well packed, just a couple of broken glasses (which I had wrapped!!). For a 40ft full container including insurance we paid just under £3k. Everyone told us that was too cheap and it would all go wrong, but couldn't fault the guys at either end. Really corteous in the UK and checked everything I had packed and they re-packed quite a bit of it. The guys who delivered to us this morning were really helpful and put the boxes wherever we told them to and also offered to help us unpack everything. I was so excited about getting my stuff I said no, I wanted to do it all myself. It certainly feels like home with all my belongings around me.

 

Tracy

 

I have to say - are you sure it was a 40ft container, since that price seem wrong? Sorry, but having just gone through the process in Dec and Jan, £3k would be fine for a 20ft but a 40ft - there'd be losing money at 3 grand and a fair bit as well. To say it included insurance - well, for a 20ft it's a good deal but not 40ft.

 

The average for a 40ft at the moment seems to be between 6k and 8k - we had a quote as high as 8.5k and a quote as low as 5.8k but the lowest was a local company who had no experience and it was not worth the risk.